Abstract
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Clinical education is a dynamic process and has an important role in training competent nurses. The clinical experience of nursing students is an important part of any nursing education program, and it is critical determinant for quality of clinical learning experiences. The clinical educators experience, knowledge and personality have an influence on the students. The researchers believed that a better understanding of the perceptions of effective clinical teacher among nursing students would enhance the clinical teaching. The aim of study is to explore the nursing student’s perception on the characteristics of an effective clinical teacher in Majmaah University (KSA).

METHODS: A descriptive study design using self- administered questionnaire of five domains was used which consisted of 44 items related to the most effective clinical characteristics. One hundred forty seven (n= 147) nursing students of Majmaah university participated in this study.

RESULTS: All participants rated the Professional Nursing Competencies as the most important domain 4.34 (SD = 0.87), and the lowest important domain perceived by participants was teaching skills 4.01 (SD =1.04). “Demonstrates nursing skills and procedures proficiently” was the highest rated characteristics perceived by students’ 4.5, (SD = 0.788), on the other hand the lowest characteristics was" Encourages Students to a critical way of thinking" to 4.33 (SD = 0.86). In addition, the results showed no significant difference in any of the five domains between male female students. These results synchronized with similar studies in other part of Arab and congruent with the students level of educations.

CONCLUSION: Further studies need to validate the results to examine if there is any difference according to gender, academic levels or geographical variation in kingdom of Saudi Arabia.