ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEVENTEEN HIGHEST RANKED SCHOOLS OF NURSING AS PERCEIVED BY THEIR FACULTIES.
Contributors: University of Rochester.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 217
Subjects: Education, Administration.; Education, Health.
Description: The purpose of this study was to describe the organizational characteristics and management systems of the 17 highest ranked schools of nursing in the nation. Schools studied had been ranked according to scholarly productivity (Chamings, 1984). Using a cross-sectional survey approach and purposive sampling procedures, data were collected through an anonymous mail questionnaire. Fifty-five percent, or 273 of the 508 faculty members, responded. The purposive sample included full-time, non-administrative faculty members with the rank of assistant professor or above.

The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The Profile of Organizational Characteristics (POC), a valid and reliable instrument, obtained participants' perceptions of eight major organizational characteristics which were measured by 51 items. The Faculty Information Form (FIF) was designed by the investigator to obtain faculty and institutional demographic information.

Mean scores of the 51 items of the POC provided a profile of each school's organizational characteristics and identified each school's management system. Data from the FIF provided a profile of faculty and institutional dimensions for each school. The combined data provided for the identification of a ideal participative nursing school model. Five schools were analyzed as representative case studies to present a relationship of management system scores and faculty and institutional data.

The POC data indicated that faculty from only one top ranked school viewed their school as participative. Fifteen schools scored in the Consultative System. One school ranked in the Authoritarian Benevolent System.

The FIF mean scores provided the following description of the faculty respondents: 98% female, 45 years old, employed at their school for 10 years, employed in nursing for 14 years, 50% are tenured, 60% doctorally prepared, 47% active in peer groups, and 44% participate in mentor activities. Student populations ranged from 313 to 1105, with a mean of 569.

Questions were raised for future study which will contribute to the knowledge and development of supportive, participative organizational characteristics in nursing schools which are vital to the promotion of more effective professional qualities in nurse educators and practitioners.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-11, Section: A, page: 3921.

Thesis (ED.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER, 1986.

School code: 0188.