EDUCATIONAL AND GEOGRAPHIC CAREER PATHWAYS OF RURAL VS URBAN HOSPITALADMINISTRATORS

Information on academic and geographic career patterns was obtained th rough a survey of 93 urban and rural hospital administrators in the St ate of Washington in 1990 (90 percent response rate). A greater propor tion of urban than rural administrators had advanced degrees (93 versu s 74 percent). While the most common career pathways were ''always urb an'' (39 percent) and ''always rural'' (20 percent), there was little support for the presumption that hospital administrators use rural pos itions as stepping stones into urban careers.