Environmental conditions and their influence on information processing by deans in baccalaureate schools of nursing

The problems of declining enrollments and shrinking resources seem particularly acute for baccalaureate schools of nursing. In a study of responses to these and other problems, deans of five types of baccalaureate nursing schools described how they collected and channeled information as they developed strategies to ensure the future of their programs.

A questionnaire was sent to the deans of 344 baccalaureate schools of nursing. Forty-two percent of the deans returned the questionnaire. A follow-up study of 30% of the nonrespondents produced an inadequate return and did not permit comparison of respondents and nonrespondents. The data were summarized using frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations. Relationships were examined with one-way analyses of variance and Pearson correlation coefficients.

The most commonly perceived factors impacting each type of school, the types of information sought for each factor, the ways information was channeled, the actions taken regarding each factor, and potential future actions were reported. Two one-way analyses of variance found no differences ∝= .05) among the types of schools in (a) the total amount of impact on the school of all the factors and (b) the total amount of influence over these factors felt by the dean of the school. Pearson correlation coefficients for total impact and the number of years the dean had been in office and total influence and the number of years the dean had been in office were not large enough to be statistically significant ∝= .05).

Suggestions for research included studies of the information-processing and decision-making strategies of deans and comparative studies of information-processing and decision-making in schools of nursing and schools in other academic areas.