Perceptions of nurse administrators regarding the importance of needed administrative competencies.

The educational preparation a nurse administrator has received is thought to influence the professional socialization of the administrator. The professional socialization influences the perceptions of the nurse administrator which then influence the actions of actions of the nurse administrator. Does the advanced educational preparation of top nurse administrators significantly affect their perceptions of what are important competencies for today's nurse administrators? An adaption of Nancy Goodrich's tool 'Determining the Type and Level of Competencies Needed by Nurse Administrators' was sent to 190 randomly selected, top nurse administrators employed by hospitals greater than 300 beds in the United States. The result indicated nurse administrators with advanced educational degrees in nursing had significantly higher mean scores for the categories of education, nursing, personnel management, organizations, research, and trends in health care when compared to nurse administrators with advanced educational degrees in a non-nursing area. Nurse administrators with an advanced educational degree in nursing administration were compared to nurse administrators with an advanced educational degree in any non-nursing area. The nursing group differed significantly from the non-nursing group in only one category: Trends in Health Care. This nursing group consisted only of nurses with nursing administration degrees; those with advanced clinical degrees were not included in this nursing group. This suggested a major influence of clinical education in the socialization of nurse administrators. Weak correlations were found between category scores of perceived importance and years as a registered nurse, years as a staff nurse, and years of management experience.