O professor como modelo aos seus estudantes: perspectivas da área da saúde / The teacher as a role model to its students: perspectives from the health area

A formação do estudante nas profissões da saúde envolve a incorporação de habilidades e competências gerais e específicas, adquiridas em experiências práticas sob a supervisão de professores ou preceptores, cujas características podem influenciar os estudantes e os guiar na construção de sua identidade profissional. Nesse contexto, define-se "modelo" (role model) como o profissional que serve de exemplo, por suas qualidades positivas, sendo imitado pelos estudantes, por demonstrar habilidades e características pessoais que os impressionam e inspiram. Modelos positivos exibem expertise profissional, boa comunicação e relacionamento com seus pacientes e com os estudantes, boas habilidades de ensino e, sobretudo, características pessoais como integridade, solidariedade e entusiasmo. Por outro lado, os estudantes são capazes de reconhecer atributos negativos indesejáveis, opostos ás características positivas. Nossos estudos sugerem que a percepção dos estudantes brasileiros sobre os modelos não difere do que é descrito no cenário internacional e que talvez não existam diferenças apreciáveis entre as várias profissões da saúde. Os professores e preceptores considerados pelos estudantes como bons modelos, surpreendentemente, desconhecem que exercem essa influência, mas têm visão semelhante aos dos estudantes sobre os atributos positivos de um bom modelo. Dada a importância dos modelos na formação pessoal e profissional na área da saúde, é imperioso que as escolas tomem medidas para dispor em seu corpo docente de predomínio de modelos positivos e para evitar que seus professores e preceptores emitam comportamentos que expressem qualidades negativas. Estas medidas envolvem atividades de desenvolvimento docente e valorização dos docentes por sua atuação no ensino. No entanto, essas medidas somente farão sentido se as escolas oferecerem aos seus docentes boas condições de trabalho e de remuneração e, sobretudo, tiverem cultura institucional que privilegie relações humanizadas entre os seus membros.

Student education and training in the health professions involve acquisition of general and specific skills and competencies which happens throughout practical experiences under the supervision of teachers or clinical tutors. Supervisor characteristics may influence students and guide them in building their professional identity. In this context, a role model is defined as the professional whose positive qualities are likely to be imitated by the students, as they demonstrated skills and personal characteristics that impress and inspire them. Positive role models exhibit professional expertise, good communication and relationships with patients and students, good teaching skills and, most importantly, personal characteristics such as integrity, compassion and enthusiasm. On the other hand, students seem to be able to recognize undesirable negative attributes as opposed to the positive ones. Our studies suggest that the perception of Brazilian students on models attributes does not differ from what is described in the international literature and that there may not be substantial differences between students from the various health professions on their views. Teachers and preceptors who students consider to be good role models, surprisingly, are unaware that they have such influence, but have similar views as students about the positive attributes of a role model. Given the importance of role models in student personal and professional development, schools must take steps to have positive models prevailing in their faculty and to prevent clinical tutors from expressing behaviours that convey negative qualities. These measures involve teacher training and faculty development activities and appreciation of faculty members for their performance in teaching. However, these measures will only make sense if schools offer their teachers good working conditions and, above all, possess an institutional culture that favours humanized relationships within the academic community.

Clinical Reasoning Web-based Prototypic Module for Tutors Teaching 5^th Grade Medical Students : A Pilot Randomized Study / General Medicine

<b>Background: </b>At present clinical reasoning skills are not systematically taught in Japanese medical universities. We developed a prototypic preliminary module for clinical tutors to introduce clinical reasoning to Japanese medical students. We hypothesized that tutored medical students would outperform self-study students.<br><b>Method: </b>Using the web-based Sequential Question and Answer test that rewarded history and differential diagnosis as proxies for clinical reasoning, we compared the pre and posttest scores of 12 randomized fifth grade tutored students at two universities during four tutor-led 1.5-hour web-based seminars using a structured syllabus to 12 randomized self-study students.<br><b>Results: </b>The tutored and self-study groups’ pretest scores were statistically similar at about 40 out of 100 weighted correct points. The tutored students’ posttest scores were 62 points, significantly greater (p = 0.007) than the pretest mean 42 points, compared to the self-study students’ posttest scores of 52 points, significantly greater (p = 0.012) than pretest mean 40 points. The difference between the two posttest groups was of borderline statistical significance (p = 0.08).<br><b>Conclusions: </b>We successfully assessed a prototypic module for tutors to introduce clinical reasoning to Japanese medical students. The tutored students achieved higher scores than the self-study students. Further research is needed to exploit the potential of our modular clinical reasoning system.