Compassionate Behavior of Clinical Faculty: Associations with Role Modelling and Gender Specific Differences.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Professionalism in Medicine
• Healthcare Leadership

Background:

• Compassion is a vital skill for physicians, learned through faculty role modeling.
• Understanding the interplay between faculty gender, compassionate behavior, and role modeling is essential for effective medical training.
• Current insights into these relationships require further elucidation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between faculty's compassionate behavior, gender, and their perceived role model status (person, teacher, physician).
• To determine if the impact of compassionate behavior on role modeling differs between male and female faculty.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional survey analyzing 12,416 resident evaluations of 2,399 faculty members across 22 Dutch hospitals.
• Predictor variables included observed compassionate behavior, faculty gender, and their interaction.
• Outcome variables were perceived status as a person, teacher, and physician role model, assessed on a 7-point Likert scale.

Main Results:

• Female faculty exhibited slightly higher scores for compassionate behavior than male faculty.
• Observed compassionate behavior was significantly associated with positive perceptions as a role model across all categories.
• Male faculty demonstrated a significantly greater positive association between compassionate behavior and role model status compared to female faculty.

Conclusions:

• Faculty's compassionate behavior is positively linked to their role model effectiveness in medical education.
• While both male and female faculty benefit from demonstrating compassion, the impact is more pronounced for male faculty.
• These findings highlight the nuanced influence of gender on the perception of faculty role models in healthcare settings.