The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of healthcareadministrative-educators and middle managers from three Midwestern hospitals about employer-provided management education for middle managers. The vision of the Chief Healthcare Administrator (CHA) of each hospital is reflected in the vision, mission andstrategic plan. The availability of formal training and development programs for middle managers is evident in the CHA's commitment to education. Using individual interviews of one-hour, the study examined the behaviors of managers and reactions to the experience of ongoing formalized middle-management education.Non-profit institutions selected had over a 250-hospital bed size with a formal department or division of management education. Hospitals chosen were HCIA Sachs designated "100 Top Hospitals" for 1999 or 2000. Each participant signed a consent form. The sample size was a minimum of one administrative-educator responsible for delivering middle manager education, two clinical managers, and two non-clinical managers from each hospital. The administrative-educator selected the interviewees. Managers interviewed had at least three years of management experience. Attitudes and practices varied due to social, political and contextual variables.Respondents were free to withdraw from the study at any time. For verification and enrichment, participants reviewed their individual interview transcripts. Managers described experiences with management education, reported increased levels of confidence, listed helpful resources, and named driving forces to support management education. Findings revealed clinical and non-clinical managers have common learningneeds. For successful management education, administrative-educators address the hospital's social, political, and cultural needs.Interviews were electronically recorded and kept confidential, as well as the verbatim transcriptions of the interviews. After the research process was complete, all tapes were destroyed. Each institution received a summary of the final document.In future years, the anticipated benefit to the participants will be that hospitals utilize the collective information to plan and deliver improved educational programming for the middle manager. This study found common themes among the respondents to develop new ways of thinking to improve managerial performance. Results may direct others to set a standard of managerial competency in healthcare. Healthcare middle managers' learning needs warrant further investigation. / Department of Educational Studies
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/175186 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Bowles, Christina M. |
| Contributors | McElhinney, James H. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | xi, 202 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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