Role Modeling in Medical Education

Abstract

The medical literature almost uniformly addresses the positive aspects of role modeling. Still, some authors have questioned its educational value, a disagreement that is probably due to differing definitions of role modeling. If defined as demonstration of skills, provision of feedback, and emulation of specific professional behaviors, then role modeling is an important component of clinical training. However, if it is defined as a learner’s unselective imitation of role models and uncritical adoption of the messages of the learning environment, then the benefits of role modeling should be weighed against its unintended harm.In this Perspective, the author argues that imitation of role models may initially help students adapt to the clinical environment. However, if sustained, imitation may perpetuate undesirable practices, such as doctor-centered patient interviewing, and unintended institutional norms, such as discrimination between private and public patients. The author suggests that the value of role modeling can be advanced not only by targeting role models and improving faculty performance but also by enhancing students’ reflective assessment of their preceptors’ behaviors, especially so that they can better discern those that are worth imitating. This student-centered approach may be accomplished by first, warning students against uncritically imitating preceptors who are perceived as role models; second, showing students that their preceptors share their doubts and uncertainties; third, gaining an insight into possible undesirable messages of the learning environment; and finally, developing policies for faculty recruitment and promotion that consider whether a clinical preceptor is a role model.

Things We Do for No Reason™: Card Flipping Rounds

“…Faculty members should demonstrate how to bedside round effectively by leading initial encounters and generate momentum by selecting initial patient encounters that are most likely to succeed. 23 Checklists can also be useful cognitive aids to facilitate an encounter and manage the cognitive load of learners. 24 Ultimately, hesitancies can be overcome with experience.…”

Interrogating patient-centredness in undergraduate medical education using an integrated behaviour model

“…It would seem that assessment is seen by the students as a final motivating factor to be patient-centred or not: learning, students also need to be guided to develop a sense of self-reflection so that they can distinguish between the exemplary and non-exemplary role models they are exposed to. 26 Fourth, in terms of the background factors that Fishbein's Integrated Model describes, our study highlighted the personality of an individual as a particularly strong factor that could have a direct influence on patient-centredness. This aspect should thus be considered more prominently in student selection and admission procedures.…”

Feedback on role model behaviour: effective for clinical trainers?

“…Besides being teachers, mentors or coaches, clinical trainers are also observed and imitated as role models when, for example, they are providing patient care or working together with other healthcare workers. To use clinical workplace learning as an educational tool to foster the development of trainees into competent professionals, it is therefore important to enhance the role model behaviour of clinical trainers [1]. …”