Research in nursing education administration: state of the art

Organizational effectiveness: toward an integrated model for schools of nursing

Assessing the quality of academic institutions involves much more than the opinions of peers or experts. Examination of the organizational effectiveness of schools of nursing has been neglected. Current emphasis on assessing educational outcomes has diverted attention from the construct, organizational effectiveness, and more comprehensive theory-driven approaches to evaluation. This review of the organizational effectiveness literature focuses on the major assessment models: goal attainment, human relations, open systems, internal processes, culture, and life cycle. Attention is given to the influence of organizational maturation on an integrated model of organizational effectiveness. Selected macrolevel studies of schools of nursing are examined, and an agenda for nursing research is proposed.

A mandate for nursing education leadership: change

Changes occurring in both the internal and external environments are causing the role of the nurse education executive to undergo a major revolution. Health care reform, and numerous other events in society, are causing organizations, corporations, and states to experience an unprecedented rate of change to redesign administrative and work group structures and functions, and to realign decision making. Because of the complexity and magnitude of change, it is imperative that faculty and administration design the work of the organization to prevent duplication of effort and be active, innovative, and creative in their respective areas of responsibility. The nurse education executive's challenge is to be prepared to lead change and to manage rapid change in an ambiguous and flexible environment.

Organizational effectiveness: the key to accountability for collegiate schools of nursing

This study describes the organizational effectiveness of collegiate nursing programs in terms of their ability to interact with their external environment. Nursing education administrators from 401 institutions were surveyed concerning their ability to secure resources and the degree of their system's openness and community interaction. Overall, with a response rate of 76.8 per cent, the administrators considered the availability of resources to be adequate and perceived their programs to be moderately successful in procuring resources. A categorical comparison of responses indicated that administrators in specialized/professional institutions identified a greater degree of richness in the availability of resources and perceived their programs to be more successful in procuring resources. However, a second categorical comparison found no statistically significant differences among administrators in their perception of system openness and community interaction. All administrators considered their environments cooperative, accepting, predictable, and stable.

Education for Executive Nurse Administrators: A Databased Curricular Model for Doctoral (PhD) Programs

This article reports a secondary analysis of qualitative data collected during an earlier study that investigated the educational preparation and role-related responsibilities of first-line nurse administrators employed in academe. Analysis of these original data raised several different and important research questions about role preparation for nurse administrators that had not been addressed in the earlier study, and that subsequently directed the secondary data analysis: (1) Are there knowledge domains specific to the executive nurse administrator role about which practicing administrators must have knowledge, and for which they are then accountable? And, if so, (2) What are the curricular implications for PhD programs in nursing that offer an executive nursing administration track? Secondary data analysis revealed that there are specific knowledge domains in executive nursing administration from which categories of courses can be identified. Implications are explored for role preparation in nursing administration at the PhD level based on the domains and categories of courses.