The on-line Clinical Teaching Perception Inventory: a "snapshot" of medical teachers.

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.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."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.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