The relationship between the educational background and managerial experience of senior Navy Medical Service Corps executives (Health Care Administrators) and their perceived current and required management capabilities

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the reported educational attainment and management experience of senior Navy medical department executives in an attempt to isolate those variables that affect their perceived management capabilities. The data used for this thesis were taken from the results of a joint Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) and Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) survey. which was designed to asses the unique educational needs of Navy medical department executives. This thesis explores one of the findings of the survey which was that the Medical Service Corps Health Care Administrator (HCA) cohort perceived their current skills to be higher than the skill levels required for a majority of the management skill categories listed in the survey. This thesis isolates certain management education and experience variables to determine why this group is so confident in their skill levels. The findings indicate that the HCA cohort has more management education and experience than the other medical communities. Additionally, management experience had more of an impact than management education on the HCA responses.