Role modelling and active apprenticeship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We appreciated the article by Restrepo et al. for enabling readers to rediscover the importance of active apprenticeship in clinical education for millennial learners.1 Their assertion regarding the use of role modelling to encourage engagement in the learning process is highly relevant during the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, which has so far claimed nearly 100 000 lives, globally.2

In this sombre atmosphere, our trainees are looking towards us for inspiration. Role modelling as a powerful educational tool has been well described in the literature.3 We believe that as clinicians and academics, we must seize the opportunity emerging from this challenge to stand tall in the face of adversity. Our compassion, courage and patient centredness should demonstrate that ‘a good teacher is more than a lecturer’.3 Trainees can develop skills like effective communication, empathy and shared decision making from observing our attitudes during this difficult hour.

Hopefully, in a few months the COVID‐19 pandemic will be over, life will regain its usual colours, and eventually, the currents of passing time will ease the pain of individual tragedies and communal losses. But, even when the memories of this stressful era start to fade in their minds, our trainees will remember how the commitment and the compassion of their role models reinfused them with enthusiasm to give their best when it was needed the most. And we will look back too, with pride, that we were there, not only for our patients but also for our trainees.