In the present study, participants explored their perceptions of role modeling by writing a reflection paper. The results of the qualitative content analysis can be presented in 5 categories of influencing others, developing different dimensions of students, situational self-awareness, feedback, and continuous effort.
Influencing others
According to the participants, being influential was one of the components of role modeling. They believed that they could be very influential in the role modeling, greatly influence different people, including learners, colleagues, patients, etc., and make changes in people. According to the participants, a part of role modeling was to positively and negatively influence others, especially learners.
"For an educator, being a role model means that some students can apply the positive and negative points of his or her personality in their future lives and professions after spending a period of time with that educator. An educator who spends most of his or her time earning money from visiting patients becomes a model from whom his or her student learns to behave to patients in the same way in the future." (Participant-2)
Developing different dimensions of student
A role model should help his or her students develop their different dimensions. Participants believed that role models play a major role in educating learners in various educational, ethical, and clinical areas. The various dimensions mentioned by the participants were categorized in the sub-categories of "influence on clinical skills", "influence on metacognitive skills" and "influence on professional behavior."
Influence on clinical skills
According to the participants, a role model can improve students’ clinical skills. According to them, the clinical teacher's knowledge and expertise play a major role in his or her role modeling. In clinical knowledge and practice, students consider their teachers as role models and emulate their ways of performing medical practices.
"When I responsibly and carefully perform the treatment and diagnostic procedure for a patient, the learner learns the same and I have seen that residents do the same. For example, in the case of endoscopy, I wrote a complete endoscopy report and it made the learner do the same." (Participant-7)
Influence on metacognitive skill
According to the participants' perceptions of role modeling, the effect a role model has on learners' metacognitive skills was emphasized. Learners learn metacognitive skills such as problem-solving, clinical decision making, situational management, and critical thinking from their models.
"The student learns how to look around, make clinical decisions, and solve problems correctly from his or her educator. I think I was a good role model for my student, since I have tried to show them how to correctly make decisions based on their situations." (Participant-5)
Influence on professional behavior
According to the results of data analysis, role models play an effective role in forming and improving professional behavior of students. They are considered by students in communication skills and professional principles.
"I always try to establish influential emotional communication with patients and their families and encourage students to do so. I explain the disease to patients and their families in the presence of learners to more familiarize them with how to interact positively with patients." (Participant-12)
Feedback
Feedback was another category considered necessary to be a role model by clinical teachers. Participants' experiences of being role models indicated the need to get feedback from others.
"I always ask for feedback from learners at the end of theoretical classes. I also try to ask for feedback from colleagues in the middle and end of the course. The head of the ward also gives me feedback once a week." (Participant- 2)
According to participants, providing feedback is also effective in being a role model.
"It is necessary to remind the student's scientific and behavioral mistakes in a calm and private environment to avoid the destruction of his/her personality." (Participant-15)
Situational self-awareness
According to the participants' perceptions of role modeling, awareness of one's position and role as a model is considered as the basis of role modeling. In fact, the role model reflects his or her behaviors by knowing his or her duties, and he or she can fulfill this role better through behavior control. This category includes two sub-categories of "awareness and reflection" and "behavior control".
Awareness and reflection
One of the components of being a role model is the awareness of role modeling. Role models should know that their students pay attention to their behavior and actions at all times and learn from them.
"I feel I have a heavy responsibility to teach hospital courses. Because in addition to teaching theoretical courses, professional behavior, and communication skills, I must observe them myself first of all. What makes me a role model for students is my behaviors." (Participant-9)
Behavior control
Role models knew behavior control as an essential part of their roles. They believed that all their actions and behaviors are carefully observed by others, so it is necessary to control their behaviors and act cautiously and wisely. To this end, self-control skills are required.
"I feel that students monitor the teacher's personality, behavior, and appearance. Thus, the teacher requires to be careful in all his/her actions and communications, and any mistake in them can have unfavorable effects in student education." (Participant-17)
Continuous effort
According to the participants' perceptions of role modeling, educational teachers must endeavor continuously to become a role model. Different aspects of role modeling and working in unstable clinical settings complicate this role. On the other hand, being a role model is a function of environmental conditions. Conditions such as multiple duties of faculty members, students' learning and enthusiasm, teacher's individual ability, and academic rank affect the quality of role modeling. It is difficult to be a role model when taking educational, research, and therapeutic roles, so teachers require motivation and continuous effort to address it in the right manner.
"I know that sometimes I do not perform well. I try and think, but it is difficult to treat, educate, and research together. As a model, I must be able to allocate a given time to education under the ward conditions of high workload and stress for critically ill patients, and the current situation makes this more difficult." (Participant-3)