The on-line Clinical Teaching Perception Inventory: a "snapshot" of medical teachers.
OBJECTIVE
Medical educators need practical and accurate instruments for evaluating clinical teaching. Our purpose was to develop norms for the Clinical Teaching Perception Inventory (CTPI) on a multidisciplinary group of North American faculty and resident teachers.


METHODS
A no-cost, on-line inventory (www.residentteachers.com) measured participants' comfort with teaching. Respondents recruited through surveys and professional organizations completed two identical Q-sorts, ranking 28 descriptors first for "my ideal teacher" and then for "myself as a teacher."


RESULTS
An international sample of 255 residents and 256 faculty members--including 143 respondents from family medicine--completed the on-line CTPI from April 2001 to March 2003. Resident and faculty teachers agreed on top descriptors for ideal clinical teachers: stimulating, encouraging, competent, communicates, and well-read. Resident teachers revealed larger discrepancies between "self" and "ideal" scores than faculty participants did. Many respondents wished to be more stimulating and well-read, highlighting perceived needs for teaching skills development. Between the subsamples of 143 family medicine teachers and 368 non-family medicine teachers, scores were virtually indistinguishable.


CONCLUSIONS
A multidisciplinary sample of 511 faculty and resident teachers agreed on key characteristics of ideal clinical teachers. Generalist educators and others can use the on-line CTPI at no cost to assess their self-perceptions as clinical teachers.
Morrison
Elizabeth H
EH
Department of Family Medicine, University of California-Irvine, 101 City Drive South, Building 200, Suite 512, Orange, CA 92868-3298, USA. ehmorris@uci.edu
Hitchcock
Maurice A
MA
Harthill
Miriam
M
Boker
John R
JR
Masunaga
Hiromi
H
D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D002170:Canada; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods; D005178:Faculty / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D013337:Students, Medical; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States