title: What constitutes a good clinical teacher?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The practical part of medical studies occurs in clinical settings. The characteristics of a good clinical teacher have been reflected in a large number of medical educational studies, mainly within the western context.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore the views of medical students and staff with regard to the characteristics of a good clinical teacher, and to determine whether sex and type of department have any significant effect on this issue within the Saudi context.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was developed. It consists of 25 characteristics with four domains: professional, teaching skills, personal, and social. The study population included 85 fourth-year students and 36 faculty staff in the following three departments: respiratory technology, physical therapy, and medical laboratory technology, at the University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The questionnaire had high reliability and satisfactory content validity. There were statistically significant sex differences regarding the importance of one domain (professional, P<0.001) and seven individual characteristics. Female participants accorded higher mean ranks compared with men (25.3 vs. 32.5 in social domain). Faculty significantly accorded higher mean ranks in all domains compared with students. No statistically significant differences among students' views based on the type of department were observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There was a general agreement on the importance of all characteristics, but the degree of importance significantly varies. Faculty in general and female participants in particular viewed such attributes as more important than their counterparts. These characteristics should be incorporated in the teacher evaluation format/questionnaire currently used by the college, which will ultimately have a positive impact on teaching and learning in Saudi Arabia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Information Management and Technology, University of Dammam, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mona Faisal
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Al-Qahtani
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005178:Faculty; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires