What constitutes a good clinical teacher?

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. objectives 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. materials and 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 and recommendations 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. © 2011 egyptian public health association.