Effective radiography clinical instructor characteristics

To identify effective clinical instructor behaviors that lead to successful clinical experiences, to designate ineffective behaviors that contributed to poor clinical experiences and to identify any differences between instructor and student perceptions.

A survey was e-mailed to 10 radiography program directors in New Jersey, along with a request to administer the survey to second-year students in their programs and each program's clinical instructors. The survey asked students and their clinical instructors to rank the importance of behavioral characteristics of clinical instructors.

For clinical instructors, the most important characteristics were "demonstrates knowledge and clinical skill," "explains concepts and decisions clearly," "demonstrates objectivity and fairness when evaluating students' clinical performance" and "is approachable, accessible and available to the students during clinical hours." The students' ranking of the most important behavioral characteristics matched those of the clinical instructors.

Although the students and instructors demonstrated different views, clinical instructors knew what the students perceive to be the most important behavioral characteristic of clinical instructors. This may be because New Jersey has strong clinical instructor requirements and because clinical instructors surveyed had extensive experience. However, because of the clinical instructor's importance, formal certification or training of clinical instructors could improve the clinical component of radiography programs.