Residents' and faculty's beliefs about the ideal clinical teacher

The objective of this study was to examine how residents and faculty in family medicine compare in their beliefs about ideal clinical teaching.

We studied 205 residents and 148 faculty in family medicine who completed the Clinical Teaching Perception Inventory (CTPI) online between April 2001 and July 2008. The participants ranked 28 single-word descriptors that characterized clinical teachers along a 7-point-scale ranging from "least like my ideal teacher" to "most like my ideal teacher."

Both residents and faculty indicated that the ideal clinical teachers should be stimulating, encouraging, competent, and communicating and should not be conventional, cautious, or controlling. However, residents rated probing and innovative significantly lower than did faculty.

Clinical faculty and residents in family medicine have a shared view of the ideal clinical teacher. However, residents and faculty differed in their ratings on the descriptors "Probing" and "Innovative." This difference might at least in part stem from where residents and faculty are located along a continuum from novice to mature expert.