Attributes of excellent attending-physician role models

Background Although effective role models are important in medical educatio n, little is known about the characteristics of physicians who serve as exc ellent clinical role models. We therefore conducted a case-control study to identify attributes that distinguish such physicians from their colleagues . Methods We asked members of the internal-medicine house staff at four teach ing hospitals to name physicians whom they considered to be excellent role models. A total of 165 physicians named by one or more house-staff members were classified as excellent role models (these served as the case physicia ns in our study). A questionnaire was sent to them as well as to 246 physic ians who had residency-level teaching responsibilities but who were not nam ed (controls). Of these 411 physicians, 341 (83 percent) completed question naires while unaware of their case-control status. Results Of the 341 attending physicians who responded, 144 (42 percent) had been identified as excellent role models. Having greater assigned teaching responsibilities was strongly associated with being identified as an excel lent role model. In the multivariate analysis, five attributes were indepen dently associated with being named as an excellent role model: spending mor e than 25 percent of one's time teaching (odds ratio, 5.12; 95 percent conf idence interval, 1.81 to 14.47), spending 25 or more hours per week teachin g and conducting rounds when serving as an attending physician (odds ratio, 2.48; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.15 to 5.37), stressing the importa nce of the doctor-patient relationship in one's teaching (odds ratio, 2.58; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.03 to 6.43), teaching the psychosocial a spects of medicine (odds ratio, 2.31; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.23 to 4.35), and having served as a chief resident (odds ratio, 2.07; 95 perce nt confidence interval, 1.07 to 3.98). Conclusions These data suggest that many of the attributes associated with being an excellent role model are related to skills that can be acquired an d to modifiable behavior. (N Engl J Med 1998;339:1986-93.) (C) 1998, Massac husetts Medical Society.