The use of coaching in stroke rehabilitation: a scoping review

Stroke results in long-term impacts on a person’s life requiring ongoing management after formal rehabilitation ends. Coaching can support people to build competencies and skills for managing health-related challenges and has the potential to support stroke survivors to continue achieving goals on their own following rehabilitation. This review sought to describe the research on coaching interventions for adults living with stroke. A scoping review to explore how coaching is defined and used in stroke rehabilitation intervention research. PubMed, CINAHL, Medline, and PsycINFO databases were searched using terms to represent coaching, rehabilitation practitioners, and stroke, the results were extracted into COVIDENCE. Data were described and synthesized to identify similarities and differences among coaching interventions. Twenty-eight articles describing 15 interventions were included and categorized based on their focus as Health Coaching, Coaching for Exercise and Physical Activity, Coaching for Engagement in Activity or Participation, and Transition Coaching. Common elements of coaching interventions were goal setting, problem solving and education with emotional support being infrequent. Notably, coaching definitions and techniques were frequently not described. Coaching in stroke rehabilitation is diverse but has common foci and elements. More research using clear descriptions of coaching is required.