This study sought mainly to determine the important functions and the preparational needs of directors of hospital education, to identify the most pertinent problems encountered by these directors in recent years, to propose educational recommendations, and to provide a pattern for improving existing preparational programs or developing new ones. Eighty-one training directors at government, church-related, and voluntary nonsectarian hospitals responded to a questionnaire containing 49 statements of functions and 33 competency statements. Functions were ranked by importance in the following ten operational areas: organizational; program purposes; program development; instructional services; student personnel services; staff personnel; facilities; business management; program evaluation; and research. To ascertain the personal knowledge needed for the above functions, competency statements were similarly ranked as evaluated by the respondents. Major problems were seen in financial support, programs, staff, facilities, equipment and materials, student personnel services, organization, and research. (author/ly)