Twelve tips for effective body language for medical educators

Abstract

Background: A significant proportion of human communication is nonverbal. Although the fields of business and psychology have significant literature on effectively using body language in a variety of situations, there is limited literature on effective body language for medical educators.

Aim: To provide 12 tips to highlight effective body language strategies and techniques for medical educators.

Method: The tips provided are based on our experiences and reflections as clinician-educators and the available literature.

Results: The 12 tips presented offer specific strategies to engage learners, balance learner participation, and bring energy and passion to teaching.

Conclusions: Medical educators seeking to maximize their effectiveness would benefit from an understanding of how body language affects a learning environment and how body language techniques can be used to engage audiences, maintain attention, control challenging learners, and convey passion for a topic. Understanding and using body language effectively is an important instructional skill.

Acknowledgements

Our tremendous thanks to Julia Whelan, MS, for her assistance with literature review in non-medical literature.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Notes on contributors

Andrew J. Hale, MD, is a clinical fellow in Infectious Disease, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Jason Freed, MD, is a clinical fellow in Hematology and Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Daniel Ricotta, MD, is a hospitalist and instructor in medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Grace Farris, MD, is a hospitalist and instructor in medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Christopher Smith, MD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and the Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.