Abstract / Summary
Abstract Background Role modelling in clinical settings is an important mechanism through which medical students internalize the values and norms of medical professionalism. Although previous research has examined how medical students experience and interpret role modelling in clinical training, empirical research in Türkiye remains limited with respect to how students respond to behaviours encountered in role model–student interactions and how these encounters relate to their developing professional identities. This study aimed to explore medical students’ lived experiences of role modelling during clinical training. Methods A qualitative phenomenological design was employed. Seventeen final-year medical students (interns) from a major public medical faculty in Türkiye participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using i nductive thematic analysis, with iterative coding and theme development conducted by two researchers. Trustworthiness was ensured through detailed description, participant validation, reflexive analysis, and external audit, conducted through regular review by a thesis monitoring committee. Results Two major themes were identified: emulated behaviors and avoided behaviors . Participants described exposure to a range of observable practices in clinical settings, including how physicians communicated with patients, managed clinical responsibilities, interacted within teams, and addressed safety issues. Through the analytical process, these observed behaviours were interpreted as reflecting broader professional qualities, such as patient-centred care, effective communication, personal and team safety, collaboration and leadership. Conversely, participants reported encountering behaviours they consciously rejected, including neglect of patient needs, avoidance of responsibility, discriminatory actions, inappropriate communication, internal team conflict, and hierarchical mistreatment. Paternalistic practices were also described as pragmatically effective in managing clinical complexity and were sometimes imitated. These findings led to the conceptualization of a role-model spectrum comprising positive, negative, and anti-role-model features, reflecting both the behaviours described by participants and the researchers’ interpretive analysis, and expressed through patterns of imitation, selective conformity, and rejection. Conclusions Professional identity formation often appears to occur through students’ interpretation of observed behaviours rather than through passive imitation. Role modelling functions as a lived and interpretive process shaped by the realities of clinical practice and students’ efforts to navigate complex and demanding environments. Notably, students adopted certain behaviours perceived as pragmatically effective, even when these did not fully align with expected professional standards. These findings highlight the need to enhance role models’ awareness of their influence on learners, as unexamined interactions may remain implicit within clinical training environments.