“I Have to Fix Things”: Confronting Surgeon Identities Through Peer Coaching

• In Event: 2451 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 12. Work Identities

Abstract

The “surgical personality” is a mostly negative academic and cultural image of the surgeon as egotistical, paternalistic, and inflexible. Because of this image, surgeons have been viewed as resistant to change and some behaviors, vulnerability for example, are viewed as “suspect” because they seemingly threaten professional competency. We report on exit interviews of surgeons who participated in a coaching program and demonstrate how their narratives challenge the surgical “personality” and forge an evolving and more open professional surgical identity suggesting a shift in surgeon culture. We interviewed n = 34 bariatric surgeons at the end of a two-year surgical coaching program. Participants in this study discussed the ways that participation in the coaching program initially conflicted with their identity as a competent professional. Surgeons were acutely aware how participation might have destabilized their surgical identity because they might be viewed as vulnerable. Despite these concerns about image, surgeons were open and committed to their own professional or personal improvement via coaching. Surgeons largely reported that coaching allowed them to reflect on their practices and find spaces of vulnerability in a profession that does not always value reflection. Finally, surgeons report that the safe spaces of intentional coaching contributed to their ideas about how surgeons, and ultimately surgery, can change.

Authors

• Mary Byrnes, University of Michigan Medicine

• Tedi Engler, Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy, University of Michigan

• Justin Dimick, Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy, University of Michigan

• Caprice Greenberg, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health