A STUDY OF NURSING ADMINISTRATIVE COMPETENCIES PROVIDING A BASIS FOR RECOMMENDING CURRICULUM CONTENT FOR A MASTERS DEGREE IN NURSING ADMINISTRATION

There are new and complex demands being placed upon the role of the nursing administrator in the hospital health care institution. Response to these demands require a broad understanding of management and administrative sciences as well as, skills and competencies in the administration of health care services beyond those traditionally available in the basic clinical preparation of nursing administrators.;The Goodrich instrument "Determining the Type and Level of Competencies Needed by Nursing Administrators" was utilized as the research tool. Two hundred and fifty hospitals were selected nationally using a segmented random sampling procedure and their nursing administrators were asked to rate competencies for importance and proficiency using the Goodrich instrument. Nursing administration educators were also surveyed from forty-one university graduate programs in nursing administration. One hundred and six hospital nursing administrators and twenty-three university nursing administration educators responded to the survey instrument.;Outcome data from the questionnaire were analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance, as well as, tests for correlation. The following findings were determined from analysis of the data: (1) There were no significant differences between the perceptions of hospital nursing administrators and nursing administration educators regarding the importance of selected competencies needed for nursing administration. (2) There were no significant differences between the perception of hospital nursing administrators and nursing administration educators regarding the level of proficiency needed for selected nursing administration competencies. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of Author.) UMI.;This major applied research project provides data for identifying the kind and level of competencies required for the role of nursing administrator as perceived and contrasted by practicing nursing administrators and nursing administration educators nationally. Also provided are related exclusions and recommendations. Through this research project the following hypotheses were tested: (1) There are no significant differences between the perceptions of hospital nursing administrators and nursing administration education directors regarding the importance of selected competencies needed for nursing administration. (2) There are no significant differences between the perception of hospital nursing administrators and nursing administration educators regarding the level of proficiency needed for selected nursing administration competencies. (3) There is no correlation between the level of importance and the level of proficiency for each competency for the entire group and within groups.