Clinical Instructors play a crucial role in shaping the future of healthcare by training students on-site to provide patient-centered team care. Respiratory care clinical instructors play a critical role in preparing respiratory care students to become effective practitioners, as nearly 50% of the respiratory care curriculum is conducted in a clinical setting under the supervision of clinical instructors. Professional competence, interpersonal relationships, personality characteristics, and teaching skills are all qualities that clinical instructors should possess to provide students with quality clinical training experiences. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The purpose of this mixed-method study was to (1) explore and compare respiratory care faculty and student perceptions of the most important characteristics of an effective clinical instructor, (2) compare academic faculty perceptions and respiratory care clinicians of the characteristics of an effective clinical instructor and (3) compare respiratory care students' perceptions of the characteristics of an effective clinical instructor as they progress through the respiratory care program. A solicitation letter containing a link to an online questionnaire was emailed to all respiratory care program directors in the United States. Program directors' emails were secured from the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC) website, which provides an alphabetical list of all accredited respiratory care training programs. The Clinical Instructor Effectiveness Questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data. Three open-ended XII questions were also included to collect qualitative data. Data was protected for both respiratory care faculty and respiratory care students. 176 teachers and 122 students completed the questionnaire. Respiratory therapy teachers obtained the highest mean on the professional skills subscale µ= (4.81) and the lowest mean on the interpersonal relations subscale µ= 4.5, while respiratory care students obtained the highest mean high on the interpersonal subscale. relationship subscale µ= (4.58) and the lowest in the professional competence subscale µ=(4.52). The independent samples t-test revealed nonsignificant differences between academic and clinical respiratory care faculty. A Mann Whitney U test revealed significant differences between respiratory care faculty and students on the professional competence (p=.001) and interpersonal relationships (p=.01) subscales. The ANOVA test revealed a significant difference between students as they progressed through the program on the interpersonal relations subscale (p=.02). Qualitative findings from this study showed that respiratory care preceptors prioritize assessment skills and professional competence as the most important characteristics of an effective clinical instructor. However, students prioritized personality characteristics and interpersonal relationships as the most important characteristics of an effective clinical instructor. Training clinical instructors to be familiar with adult learning styles was the emerging theme from faculty responses. Practical experience was the emerging theme from student responses to positive learning experiences, and the gap between theory and practice was the emerging theme from student responses.