The influence of role-modeling on clinical empathy of medical interns: A qualitative study

INTRODUCTION: Clinical empathy ascertains the quality of doctor-patient relationship and entails beneficial outcomes for both parties. Role-modeling is a major factor in promoting clinical empathy skills of medical students. The present study attempted to explain the importance of role-modeling in clinical empathy of medical interns. It was also intended to obtain a better and more profound understanding of the subject based on the experiences of medical interns. METHODS: In this qualitative conventional content analysis, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 14 medical interns and 6 clinical professors. The participants were selected by purposive sampling. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Trustworthiness, credibility, and confirmability of the data were confirmed. RESULTS: Data analysis led to the emergence of a theme called role-modeling, and two subcategories: "advertent role-modeling" and "inadvertent role-modeling". Advertent role-modeling included "influenced by the charismatic personality of professors", "critique of faculty members' communicative behaviors with patients", and "observation of the faculty members' performance". Inadvertent role-modeling included "crystallization of human values in communication behaviors" and "compliance with hierarchical behavior". CONCLUSION: Role-modeling was the main theme of the present study. To improve clinical empathy skills, particular attention should be paid to role-modeling. Informing clinical professors and medical students on role-modeling, strengthening students' empathetic behaviors by role model professors, and recruitment of professors with strong communication skills are among the recommended strategies of this study.