What does a health coach do?
A Health Coach is an individual health educator who provides lifestyle and behavior guidance. They work with clients to help them feel their best through food and lifestyle changes.
Health coach responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real health coach resumes:
- Participate in workshops and offer lectures on various health topics, aim toward prevention and management of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
- Motivate staff to participate in lunch time yoga and strength training exercises as well as cooking demos and office nutrition trivia.
- Promote, educate and assist individuals in health management including diabetes management, nutrition, stress management and tobacco cessation.
- Obtain CPR certification before the summer program begin.
- Maintain and control all hippa-relate patient documentation via EMR.
- Perform all job duties in compliance with HIPAA guidelines and company confidentiality policies.
- Comply with all HIPAA and ADA laws with respect to protect health information and discrimination.
- Target the Latino male to educate him on issues of substance use/abuse and domestic violence.
- Provide and support resources to the Medicare disease management population to help reduce health risks.
- Work remotely for dallas-base company contract out to MHS Indiana to handle asthma and COPD patients.
- Lead group exercise classes that include; core, spin, boot camp, stretching, and yoga.
- Assist co-workers in providing the participants with a good experience when attending an appointment at the WIC clinic.
- Illustrate the complexity of elevate BMI and medical risks associate to help members appreciate health benefits of participating in the program.
- Specialize in using advance listening and open end questioning techniques to better engage patients to participate in behavior change.
- Determine benefits base upon need, and communicate with social workers or human service workers to ascertain eligibility for WIC benefits.
Health coach skills and personality traits
We calculated that 15% of Health Coaches are proficient in Customer Service, Patients, and Optimal Health. They’re also known for soft skills such as Instructional skills, Interpersonal skills, and Writing skills.
We break down the percentage of Health Coaches that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 15%
Utilized a collaborative process of assessment, evaluation, coaching, and motivation to engage participants and provide effective customer service.
- Patients, 13%
Provide individual and group coaching to Veteran patients and collaborate with interdisciplinary rehabilitation team to achieve and promote healthy lifestyle changes.
- Optimal Health, 11%
Used innovative and dynamic partnerships to enhance healthy living and accountability to reach and maintain optimal health
- Disease Management, 6%
Provide direct telephonic clinical education and case management to members through one-on-one teaching to address gaps in care and disease management.
- Ongoing Support, 5%
Provide ongoing support and guidance to clients to set goals and make sustainable changes that improve their health and happiness.
- Nutrition Education, 5%
Organized, implemented and presented employee nutrition education classes, organized employee nutrition education articles and administered and graded employee quizzes.
Most health coaches use their skills in "customer service," "patients," and "optimal health" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential health coach responsibilities here:
Instructional skills. One of the key soft skills for a health coach to have is instructional skills. You can see how this relates to what health coaches do because "health education specialists and community health workers lead programs, teach classes, and facilitate discussion with clients and families." Additionally, a health coach resume shows how health coaches use instructional skills: "demonstrated strong instructional and communication skills through health fairs and clinical topics. "
Interpersonal skills. Many health coach duties rely on interpersonal skills. "health education specialists and community health workers interact with many people from a variety of backgrounds," so a health coach will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways health coach responsibilities rely on interpersonal skills: "encourage and coach individuals to make healthy lifestyle changes through use of motivational interviewing and strong interpersonal skills. "
Analytical skills. health coach responsibilities often require "analytical skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "health education specialists collect and evaluate data to determine the needs of the people they serve." This resume example shows what health coaches do with analytical skills on a typical day: "provide and analyze health education program for members with chronic diseases. "
Problem-solving skills. A commonly-found skill in health coach job descriptions, "problem-solving skills" is essential to what health coaches do. Health coach responsibilities rely on this skill because "health education specialists and community health workers must think creatively about improving the health of the community." You can also see how health coach duties rely on problem-solving skills in this resume example: "provide solution focused assistance in helping patients meet their stress reduction goals. "
The three companies that hire the most health coachs are:
- Highmark76 health coaches jobs
- Natural Grocers72 health coaches jobs
- CVS Health25 health coaches jobs
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Compare different health coaches
Health coach vs. Community educator
Community Educators are responsible for organizing and improving access to training and education opportunities throughout a local community. Their duties include forming relationships with community groups, discovering local interests, develop service plans with education providers, and increase learning channels such as through classes, tutorials, and mentorship programs. They are responsible for sourcing project grants, managing education budgets, facilitating voluntary groups' growth, and conducting report assessment. Community Educators also carry out volunteer and staff training sessions.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between health coaches and community educator. For instance, health coach responsibilities require skills such as "customer service," "patients," "optimal health," and "excellent interpersonal." Whereas a community educator is skilled in "community outreach," "community education," "educational programs," and "community events." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Community educators tend to make the most money working in the health care industry, where they earn an average salary of $65,093. In contrast, health coaches make the biggest average salary, $40,713, in the health care industry.The education levels that community educators earn slightly differ from health coaches. In particular, community educators are 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a health coach. Additionally, they're 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Health coach vs. Certified lactation educator
A certified diabetes educator primarily works with patients diagnosed with prediabetes and diabetes to promote and educate them about necessary lifestyle changes and disease management strategies. As a certified diabetes educator, it is their responsibility to help patients understand their condition and how it will affect them, serve as a mentor in different self-care practices, suggest lifestyle and disease management plans, teach them about the different medication procedures and dietary needs, and coordinate other services when necessary.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that health coach responsibilities requires skills like "customer service," "patients," "optimal health," and "excellent interpersonal." But a certified lactation educator might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "classroom management," "cpr," "clc," and "english language."
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Certified lactation educators tend to reach similar levels of education than health coaches. In fact, they're 1.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Health coach vs. Certified diabetes educator
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, health coaches are more likely to have skills like "customer service," "optimal health," "excellent interpersonal," and "excellent organizational." But a certified diabetes educator is more likely to have skills like "cde," "patient education," "patient care," and "rd."
Most certified diabetes educators achieve a similar degree level compared to health coaches. For example, they're 1.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.9% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Health coach vs. In service educator
Types of health coach
Updated January 8, 2025
