Qualitative and quantitative methods for the assessment of clinical preceptors

The improvement of clinical teaching skills has consistently been an important focus of faculty development in family medicine. Successful faculty development programs depend on an understanding of the components of clinical teaching and a profile of the strengths and weaknesses of each faculty member with respect to these components. In this study a system was developed to identify and measure specific faculty characteristics of inpatient preceptors. Complementary quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed. An analysis and comparison of the two approaches suggest that the measures result in a similar ranking of faculty, but that the qualitative approach identifies individual faculty strengths and weaknesses, which are more useful for providing feedback to stimulate and guide change.