How Clinical Instructor Behavior Affects Student Clinical Engagement from a Motivational Perspective

Given the close interpersonal nature of the student-clinical instructor (CI) relationship and the unpredictable and often stressful clinical environment in which they interact with one another, it is extremely important that CIs understand how their behavior directly affects their students' motivation to engage in educationally important clinical activities. This article presents a review of the motivation literature grounded in self-determination theory with the goal of providing the reader insight into how CI psychologic need-supporting/thwarting behaviors affect student-CI engagement. Specific need-supporting and need-thwarting behaviors are identified and discussed in terms of how they impact students' needs for autonomy, competency, and relatedness. Recent research has revealed a strong connection between overall CI need-supporting/thwarting behavior and student clinical engagement. The author hopes to bring further awareness of the powerful psychologic impact CIs have on their students and to draw attention to the need for routine in-service programs specifically designed to teach CIs how to effectively use psychologic need-supporting behaviors and avoid psychologic need-thwarting behaviors when working with their students.