Jack and I created A Whole New Doctor as an experiment with the strong hypothesis that providing coaches to medical students would make a difference in their lives (like providing coping skills and reducing pressures that lead to depression or learning how to engage in team leadership and mindset shifts).

Margaret Cary, MD MBA MPH PCC and Cliff Kayser, MSOD, MSHR, PCC “I’m so exhausted. I love my patients, but caring for them gets in the way of time with my family. I have young kids and I want to be there for them. My dad was always at work and I barely remember him. I don’t want that to happen …

Following are five essays written by students at the Georgetown University School of Medicine who participated in a program called: “A Whole New Doctor.”

My work in coaching physicians lives at the interface of what they know—getting it right—and what they often don’t realize, that being an effective executive leader requires additional skills and moving from linear to complex thinking.

With a coaching approach, we stay curious and calm, ask questions and actively listen.

I’ll highlight a few of the troubles common to physicians based on our professional culture – as well as a few of the methods I’ve found especially effective in working with other physicians because of our culture.

What is it about physicians? The stereotype of the brilliant and bold surgeon who reigns over the operating room whose mantra is “A chance to cut is a chance to cure.” The ever-smiling pediatrician wearing a bowtie with small elephant on his stethoscope. And the pipe-smoking psychiatrist, steeped in Freud and saying little. None of whom listens to anyone without …