Wayline is
a resource that offers reflective, practical courses and coaching for clinicians and clinical leaders navigating complex conversations, responsibility, and the human weight of their work.
Coaching and leadership education for the moments that shape trust.
Leadership is not only tested in meetings, metrics, or strategic plans.
It is tested in the hallway after a hard conversation. In the pause before giving feedback. In the way a team recovers after trust has been strained. In the words we choose when the room gets tight.
Many physicians and clinical leaders are carrying more than most people see. They are expected to make sound decisions, communicate clearly, manage conflict, support teams, meet performance expectations, and stay composed when pressure rises.
Most of the time, they are doing that while moving quickly.
And sometimes, something tightens. A conversation goes poorly. Feedback lands badly. A team loses trust. A capable person begins to feel defensive, isolated, or unsure how to recover.
Wayline was created for those moments: not to shame, not to excuse, and not to reduce people to their hardest day, but to help leaders find the next right step.
About Us
Wayline was created to support physicians, clinical leaders, and professionals growing in the practices that shape trust:
clearer communication, steadier leadership, thoughtful accountability, and better repair after difficult moments.
It reflects years of experience in clinical practice, leadership, and teaching.
Through coaching, courses, and practical leadership education, Wayline offers a steady place to learn, reflect, and return to the work with more clarity and skill.
Our Founder and Coach
Dr. David Duffey is an osteopathic physician, board-certified pediatrician, former Chief Medical Officer, healthcare executive, educator, and physician coach with more than 30 years of experience in clinical care and leadership.
He has cared for patients and families, taught future physicians, led clinical teams, and worked inside complex healthcare systems.
Through Wayline, Dr. Duffey helps physicians, clinical leaders, and healthcare teams strengthen communication, rebuild trust, navigate difficult conversations, and lead with greater clarity and steadiness.
His approach is practical, humane, and non-punitive. It does not avoid accountability, but it also does not reduce people to their hardest moment.
Dr. Steve Hippler, MD,
Chief Clinical Officer
“David has a gift for engaging learners and asking critical questions. Through his work, leaders and clinicians develop the skills and confidence to have clearer and more constructive conversations.”
Dr. Leslie Jurecko, MD,
Chief Quality and Safety Officer
"[Dr. Duffey] has a remarkable ability to recognize the strengths in others and help people grow with confidence and purpose. He brings a calm, practical presence to every situation and consistently leads with integrity, compassion, and service to others.”
Dr. Jeff Tillery, MD,
Medical Group President
“Dr. Duffey is an astute listener and seasoned pediatrician that uses his skills to support and navigate patients, families, and colleagues to the best paths possible in our complex world of healthcare.”
Asynchronous and designed to encourage learners to go at their own pace. Available as full courses or individual modules.
The Wayline Learning Series
Written and narrated by Wayline founder Dr. David Duffey, pediatrician and healthcare executive of over 30 years.
Learning for the moments that are difficult to teach - and important to get right.
Wayline is a connected series of short, practical learning experiences about the human side of clinical care, teaching, and leadership.
The courses begin with listening and presence, then move into rupture and repair, uncertainty, leadership, bedside care, everyday conversation, teaching, receiving feedback, and carrying responsibility over time.
Each course can stand on its own. Together, they create a broader learning arc around a common question:
How do we remain clear, responsible, and human when the room becomes difficult?
This work is educational, not corrective. It is designed for reflection, practical application, and the real moments in which trust is shaped.
Wayline is educational, not corrective.
Our Approach
It is grounded in real clinical work and designed to support reflection, clarity, and ethical presence.
Wayline avoids scripts, remediation, and performance framing.
Learners are encouraged to use what helps and leave the rest.
How It Works
Courses are self-paced, and designed to fit into real professional lives.
Modules are short and focused.
Reflective exercises are included to support integration.
Individual learners may begin with the course that fits the moment in front of them. Organizations may use courses in sequence or select them around a particular curricular or development need.
1
Listening with the Heart
Presence before response
A foundation in listening, pause, presence, reflection, and creating the conditions in which another person can be heard.
2
After the Room Tightens
Rupture, accountability, and repair
Recognize rupture without collapsing into blame or defensiveness, and move toward accountability and repair when repair is possible.
3
Holding the Middle
Clarity, humane boundaries, and responsible follow-through
Stay present when certainty is limited, emotion is present, and the work does not resolve neatly - without forcing closure or taking on what is not yours.
4
Leading the Tone
Leadership people can experience
Explore how presence, listening, tension, feedback, accountability, uncertainty, and return shape the climate a leader creates around other people.
5
At the Bedside
Noticing, speaking up, and carrying continuity
Built around the nursing vantage point: noticing change, speaking up, translating the plan, handing care forward, maintaining boundaries, and ending the shift more cleanly.
6
Steadier Conversations
Clearer conversation in everyday life and work
Practical ways to listen, ask, speak clearly, slow a tightening exchange, hold a needed boundary, and return after a conversational miss.
7
Teaching in the Real Room
Guiding learners with clarity, challenge, and dignity
For faculty, preceptors, mentors, and others who teach while real work is happening - correcting clearly, preserving dignity, and helping learners grow without making them smaller.
8
Receiving What Is Hard to Hear
Feedback, perspective, and the responsibility to keep growing
Stay present with difficult feedback long enough to understand another perspective, sort what is true, respond responsibly, and remain teachable without chasing approval.
9
Carrying the Work Cleanly
Responsibility, limits, and staying human in work that matters
Sort responsibility from control, recognize when support is needed, set limits that preserve care, return after difficult moments, and continue without becoming consumed or hardened.
For Medical Education & Healthcare Organizations
Wayline is designed to complement, not replace, existing medical education.
Courses can be used as stand-alone learning experiences or incorporated into broader curricula for medical students, residents, fellows, faculty, physicians, nurses, clinical leaders, and other healthcare professionals.
The courses focus particularly on moments that can be difficult to teach through traditional content alone: listening when pressure rises, responding after a conversation goes poorly, tolerating uncertainty, giving and receiving feedback, recognizing how bias and power can shape an interaction, using authority responsibly, speaking up, maintaining humane boundaries, repairing trust when repair is possible, and knowing when an interaction requires a different response.
Wayline courses are short, reflective, and practical. They can be completed independently, paired with facilitated discussion, used within an existing course or leadership program, or combined into a learning series around a particular educational need.
The goal is not another curriculum to fit into an already crowded curriculum. It is to provide useful learning for some of the moments learners will eventually have to face in the real room.
Flexible Ways to Use Wayline
An organization might use a single course around a particular need, select several courses to support an existing curriculum, or build a Wayline learning series for a cohort. Courses can also be paired with facilitated discussion, workshops, or coaching.
We welcome conversations with educators and organizations about what fits their learners rather than assuming one approach fits everyone.
Curious what our courses are like? Hear more about us from Dr. Duffey in this short introduction video.
Healthcare Provider Coaching
Coaching is individualized support for physicians, clinical leaders, and professionals who want help
with a real leadership or communication situation.
This may involve a difficult conversation, strained trust, feedback that was hard to hear, a team
dynamic that needs attention, or a leadership moment that did not go the way someone hoped.
Coaching is practical, confidential, and non-punitive. It helps people slow down, understand what is
happening, prepare for the next conversation, and return to the work with more clarity and
steadiness.
Dr. David Duffey, DO
will meet with you virtually and you will leave with actionable tools such as reflection worksheets, templates, and next steps.
Book a Coaching Session
10 min
50 min
275 US dollars2 hr 10 min
Interested in Exploring Wayline?
If you are considering Wayline for a medical school, residency or fellowship program, clinical department, leadership program, or healthcare organization, we would be glad to talk.
Sometimes the right starting point is one course. Sometimes it is a particular group of learners or a difficult educational problem you are already trying to address.
Start with the need. We can explore together whether Wayline has something useful to offer.