The Expanding Field of Health Coaching: An Ideal Role for Credentialed Medical Assistants-The Expanding Field of Health Coaching

The Expanding Field of Health Coaching

Pdf Summary

The document, authored by Donald A. Balasa, JD, MBA, AAMA CEO and Legal Counsel, discusses health coaching, particularly its role in improving patients' health outcomes. Health coaching is defined as the use of evidence-based conversations, clinical interventions, and strategies to engage patients in health behavior changes, aiming for optimal wellness, improved health outcomes, reduced health risks, and decreased healthcare costs. Health professionals such as medical assistants, dieticians, counselors, and social workers often serve as health coaches due to their extensive training and education.<br /><br />Health coaching is distinct from personal fitness, life, and wellness coaching, despite some overlaps. The core competencies for health coaches include being patient-centered, demonstrating emotional intelligence, being effective health educators, employing evidence-based interventions, conducting motivational interviewing, and displaying cultural competence, among others.<br /><br />Key elements of the health coaching process include establishing rapport with patients, using motivational interviewing to encourage behavior change, and collaborative goal setting to help patients achieve realistic health goals. Research shows that health coaching, especially by medical assistants, significantly improves patient outcomes in chronic care settings. For instance, a 2015 study in the American Journal of Managed Care demonstrated that medical assistants trained as health coaches improved the quality of chronic care and patient satisfaction. Another study in the Annals of Family Medicine highlighted that health coaching led by medical assistants improved the control of diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia in low-income patients.<br /><br />The document emphasizes that health coaching by medical assistants has the potential to address nationwide deficiencies in chronic disease management and may be scalable across different healthcare settings due to its simplicity and compatibility with current healthcare models. Medical assistants, with their cultural and linguistic alignment with patient populations, are particularly effective in this role.<br /><br />Overall, health coaching is an emerging field that holds promise for significantly improving health outcomes, particularly when executed by well-trained medical assistants.

Keywords

health coaching

patient outcomes

medical assistants

chronic care

motivational interviewing

evidence-based interventions

cultural competence

chronic disease management

patient-centered

health behavior changes