Educational and geographic career pathways of rural vs. urban hospital administrators

Information on academic and geographic career patterns was obtained through a survey of 93 urban and rural hospital administrators in the State of Washington in 1990 (90 percent response rate). A greater proportion of urban than rural administrators had advanced degrees (93 versus 74 percent). While the most common career pathways were "always urban" (39 percent) and "always rural" (20 percent), there was little support for the presumption that hospital administrators use rural positions as stepping stones into urban careers.