Objective: To undertake a qualitative study to explore the influence of role modelling on teaching by comparing faculty members recollections of their teachers' behaviours with residents perceptions of the same behaviours in a family medicine residency programme in Saudi Arabia.
Method: Using semi-structured interviews of faculty and a questionnaire based on the issues arising from the interviews, faculty members' recollections of their medical teachers' behaviours were compared with residents' current perceptions of the same teaching behaviours.
Setting: Department of Family Medicine, King Fahad National Guard Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Subjects: Faculty and residents.
Results: The four best-remembered teacher behaviours were: positive behaviour towards patients, negative behaviour towards junior colleagues, effective presentation of subject content and encouragement to participate in patient care. The residents perceived positive behaviour towards patients, positive behaviour towards junior colleagues, suboptimal skills of subject content presentation, and insufficient encouragement for trainees to actively participate in patient management. Although faculty retained many unhappy memories of teacher behaviour, it was encouraging that there was no evidence of perpetuation of the negatively perceived behaviours which provoked them.
Conclusions: Discernment of the value of technical teaching skills was not a predictor of later proficiency.