A study of the functions on continuing nursing education administrators

The purpose of this study was to describe the functions of continuing nursing education (CNE) administrators in hospitals with 300 or more beds in Pennsylvania. The study included a description of personal characteristics, career profile, professional development activities, organizational context of practice, and ratings of functions CNE administrators do or do not perform as compared to proficiencies described by Alan Knox (1979).;The questions which guided the study included: (1) what are the modal patterns of the personal and professional characteristics of CNE administrators, (2) what are the professional development and participation activities of CNE administrators, (3) what are the modal patterns of the institutional characteristics where CNE administrators are employed, (4) which functions described by Knox do CNE administrators perform, and (5) is there a relationship between the reported functions CNE administrators perform and select variables?;The study used a survey method which was mailed to the 76 hospitals in Pennsylvania with 300 or more beds. An 81.6% response rate was obtained. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and by using the Chi Square and Kendall Tau to examine the question of relationships between variables.;The respondents in this study are experienced in the profession of nursing and most have graduate preparation, although none have graduate degrees in adult continuing education. The respondents work in centralized systems under the control of nursing service administration. They are responsible for functions other than CNE, however, most relate to education in some way.;The respondents reported performing 22 of the 27 functions listed in the survey. The exceptions were the 4 research skills and one conceptual skill. The rank order of functional categories was theoretical understandings, personal qualities, program development skills, administrative skills, conceptual skills, and research skills.;Of 270 Chi Square analyses, only 24 showed significance at.05. Additionally, 88% of the Kendall Tau tests of correlation showed only chance relationships. Thus, it cannot be concluded that there are generalizable relationships between the performance of the 27 functions and 10 independent variables.