| Purpose. The purpose of this descriptive, correlational study was to examine if there was a common understanding of a good clinical teacher among nursing students and faculty. A secondary purpose was to validate a tool for developing individual prescriptions for improving the clinical teaching of nursing instructors. A third purpose was to test some common assumptions about good teaching: (a) if experience in clinical teaching leads to a better praxis, (b) if educational training (the most common intervention) leads to better teaching, (c) if experience in teaching (other than nursing) leads to better clinical teaching, (d) if the education degree status has an impact on the quality of teaching, and e) if teaching status (full or parttime) enhances clinical teaching.;Methodology. Twenty-five nursing faculty from a junior college and 215 nursing students participated in this descriptive correlational study. Nursing faculty completed identical Q-sorts from two different frames of reference, first for "myself as teacher" followed by "my ideal teacher". Students also completed identical Q-sorts from two different frames of reference, first for "my clinical teacher" followed by "my ideal teacher". Using the clinical teaching Perception Inventory (CTPI®) tool, faculty and students ranked 28 one-word behaviors along a 7-point continuum of significance, from "least like" to "most like". Using the Self-Efficacy Toward Teaching Inventory (SETTI), faculty rated their confidence in their ability to perform 48 teaching skills. Faculty also completed a demographic questionnaire.;Findings. Nursing instructors agreed with physicians on most descriptors that identified themselves as clinical teachers, and on 90% of the behaviors of the "ideal" clinical instructor. Nursing instructors and their students agreed on 80% of the behaviors of these same teachers. Nurses and their students agreed on ½ of the perceptions of the "ideal" clinical instructor. Effective clinical teachers' scores did not correlate with the predictor variables: years teaching nursing, number of educational courses completed, years teaching courses other than nursing, and biological age.;Recommendations. A prescription for educating teachers to become more effective clinical instructors includes the implementation of a faculty development program where specific learning needs and faculty readiness are assessed prior to the onset of educating faculty how to teach clinical nursing. |
