Role modelling is an issue in health science education, particularly in clinical supervision. There is consensus that the modelling process is more effective when the clinical teacher is aware of being a role model and plays this role unambiguously. 1 One challenge is to guide clinical teachers into making the implicit explicit. 2–4 Côté et al. have developed a three-step explicit teaching strategy for role modelling in clinical settings: what to do before, during and after the structured observation of a clinical teacher by the resident (for example, observing a teacher putting in a central line, focusing on communication during the procedure and then discussing what was done; Table 1). 5 Although this approach is practiced in the health sciences programmes at Laval University (Quebec, Canada), to our knowledge it has not been subject to formal evaluation.