The Relationship between Characteristics of Clinical Professors and Satisfaction of Medical Students

Clinical education in medicine requires factors such as a hospital education environment, diverse patients, complete physical facilities, and, most importantly, competent professors with excellent educational ability. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the characteristics of clinical professors and the level of satisfaction of medical students.Materials & This descriptive-analytical, cross-sectional, and retrospective study is based on the results from the satisfaction forms received from medical students of the Islamic Azad University, Qom, Iran, in 2016-2020 by education development office. A total of 130 clinical faculty and visiting professors of the medical school were examined in these five years, and over 500 students participated in the evaluation of professors during these years. The degree of satisfaction of students at a high level with non-native professors (76.91%) was significantly higher (P<0.05) compared to native professors (5.38%). This satisfaction of specialist professors (76.59%) was significantly higher compared to subspecialist professors (27.68%) (P<0.05). However,  there was no relationship between gender, age, marital status, clinical work experience, type of cooperation with the university, duration of collaboration with the university, and the number of scientific articles registered by the clinical professor with the level of student satisfaction. Although students were more satisfied with non-native professors and the university’s expertise, these professors are recommended to be used in teaching students.