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OBJECTIVE: The development and testing of a questionnaire to enable anesthesiology residents to assess the training qualities oftheir clinician-educators. DESIGN: Questionnaire. METHODS: The taskforce drafted a questionnaire based on the 26 item Stanford Faculty Development Program questionnaire (SFDP26) and adapted to the Dutch situation. Following its discussion in separate meetings ofanesthesiology residents and clinical staff, the questionnaire was further edited. The resulting instrument contained 6 teaching domains and 26 items. The questionnaire was made available electronically to anesthesiology residents only. Participation was voluntary, confidential and anonymous. Group results were presented at a plenary session. Anesthesiology staff received their individual scores by e-mail; results were confidential. RESULTS: 21 residents assessed 39 anesthesiologists. A total of 423 questionnaires were completed. Factor analysis resulted in the reduction and re-grouping of the teaching domains. The internal consistency ofthe teaching domains was high (Cronbach-alpha > or = 0.86). The assessment results of the teaching qualities of the anesthesiology faculty were positive. 'Communication of goals' was the lowest scoring (mean = 3.41) and 'Professional attitude towards residents' the highest scoring teaching domain (mean = 4.07). Gender did not correlate with the assessment scores of faculty. 'Year of training' was negatively correlated with most of the teaching domains. CONCLUSION: A feasible and reliable instrument for the evaluation of Dutch clinician-educators is now available

Public anatomy theaters are seen as the earliest form of popularizing medical science. In the seventeenth-century Netherlands they functioned as civic cultural centres, where, in wintertime, professors of anatomy presented anatomical demonstrations to a large and varied audience. During the remainder of the year the theatre was a museum of naturalia and artificialia, while it was also a meeting-place for scientists and artists. Although the anatomy lesson possibly was a moral-philosophical lesson about the relativity and fragility of the earthly existence rather than a public lesson in medicine, its sustained tradition certainly advanced the status and the development of the medical profession, and bred curiosity about medical insights in large sections of the population. Institutional aspects of this history, such as regulations and public accountability for ongoing medical experimentation, are still worth considering when designing current medical education.