The department headship in college and university allied health departments

Abstract

Programs to prepare allied health professionals are the latest in a progression of health-related programs to be assimilated into college and university life. Like their predecessors, preparation programs for physicians and nurses, allied health programs developed almost willy-nilly in the past 50 years, and only within the past decade have begun to be taken seriously by the nation's leading colleges and universities.

In this study, new departments of allied health that have been established in 133 senior colleges and universities with two or more programs accredited by the Committee on Allied Health Education and Accreditation were surveyed. From a sample of 36 institutions, fully useable responses were received from 114 heads of allied health departments and 90 heads of other academic departments, such as education, English, psychology, chemistry, and biology.

The study revealed that there are significant differences in responses from allied health department heads and other academic area department heads in terms of personal characteristics (age, academic rank, and gender), departmental activities (allied health department heads place more emphasis on administrative tasks), and departmental goals. The most powerful variables differentiating responses between the two classes of department heads were percent of faculty with doctoral degrees, size of departments, percent of students in departmental courses who are departmental majors, emphasis given to teaching service courses, and emphasis on administrative activities. In summary, allied health departments (in contrast to other departments) are small (about six FTE), under credentialed, insular, engaged principally with their own majors, and committed primarily to the professional preparation of their students for future careers. Allied health department heads typically are experienced professionals who were brought to the institution from the outside to serve an indefinite term, and who appear to be overly concerned with the nuts and bolts of departmental administration. The researcher concluded that extant departments of allied health are still predominantly professional rather than academic in outlook and standard practice.