Suggestions for graduate education in nursing service administration

The study was prompted by a long-standing concern about how best to educate nurse administrators for work in complex health service organizations. In the last decade, there has been increasingly widespread agreement in nursing that advanced education for clinical specialization alone may be insufficient. To improve understanding of education for nursing administration (NA), the suggestions in 37 publications printed between 1976 and 1985 were analyzed. Inferences were made from these publications about curriculum content, program structure, instructional placement, and practicum experiences. Content suggested most often pertained to health systems, nursing practice, research, and policy. Reference was least often made to perspectives in organization theory, ethics, and future studies. Suggestions for international NA were made in only one publication. Administration majors with a clinical nursing emphasis in multidisciplinary programs controlled by schools of nursing were widely recommended, as were administrative practicums of variable length. Few suggestions were made about the epistemological considerations needed to guide the development of interdisciplinary nursing administration. In the future, consideration of the overlap--from nursing and management science--of concepts, research problems, and modes of inquiry, will be important for the education of nurse administrators. In the 1960s and early 1970s, clinical specialization was the central focus of graduate nursing education. During this period of time, emphasis on nursing administration (NA) declined, as did the number of NA programs, resulting in a critical shortage of nurse administrators academically prepared to manage health services (Blair, 1976a-b).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)