Focus groups and interviews were conducted with 15 clinical faculty, 4 nursing education administrators, 22 nurses, and 4 hospital administrators involved in clinical placements. When nurses worked with practicing faculty, they experienced less role overload, conflict, and ambiguity. Lack of communication of expectations among administrators,…

The need for and importance of effective leadership in nursing education mandates that individual and institutional efforts be committed to reducing role ambiguity, conflict, and overload in the position of assistant dean, whose role is subject to multiple demands and involved with multiple administrative subsystems. (Author/MSE)