Preceptors overseeing health care students during clinical education are critical to the overall learning experience of the student. Although research has been conducted surrounding the characteristics of effective clinical preceptors from the students’ perspective within specific professions, little research has been done across health care disciplines. Research across health care professions is important because of the increased attention by academic programs on interprofessional education. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there is a difference amongst health care education students’ perceptions as to the characteristics of effective clinical preceptors. This study included participants from six different health care programs at one research-intensive university in the Midwest. Findings included students from all disciplines ranked teaching ability lowest of four subcategories when surveyed on characteristics of their past preceptors. Teaching ability was also the subcategory showing the largest difference between actual student-preceptor experiences and the students’ ideal preceptor. Differences among professions were seen within this study such as students’ opinion of actual preceptor professional competence between occupational therapy and physician assistant students. However, students overall perceive their actual preceptor experiences and their ideal preceptors similarly. The findings in this study assist educational programs utilizing interprofessional education to better understand their students’ perspective of past preceptors and their ideal preceptors
