Introduction: Clinical training is an important aspect of nursing education which transfers students from theoretical training to clinical settings. This study aimed to identify the characteristics of effective clinical Instructors from the viewpoint of nursing students and clinical faculties.
Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted on 305 nursing students and 26 clinical Instructors. The data was collected using a 49-item questionnaire with five subscales of professional, personal, communicative, teaching methods and evaluation characteristics. Pearson correlation and t-test were employed to analyze the data using SPSS 22.
Results: The overall mean of the characteristics of effective clinical instructors from the viewpoint of students was 6.54±0.13 and 6.36±0.26 from the viewpoint of instructors. The highest score of students’ perspective was related to the domain of teaching with a mean of 6.68±0.52, and the subscale of evaluation with a mean of 6.67±0.43 for the instructors.
Conclusion: Considering the importance of evaluation from the viewpoint of clinical faculty, the context of proper evaluation is necessary to be considered in clinical training. For the subscale of teaching and the ability to connect theoretical and practical information, emphasized by the students, experienced teachers are needed in clinical practice