Nursing Home Administrators

A bachelor's and master's degree are usually required to work as a nursing home administrator, but some facilities may hire those with work experience in the field instead of formal education. Important skills include budget planning and accounting; directing and evaluating the work of nursing home personnel; interpersonal skills to maintain communication among the governing board, staff, and department heads; planning, implementing and administering programs; recruitment, hiring, and training personnel; monitoring use of resources to ensure their effective use; and developing and maintaining computerized record management systems to store and process data and produce reports. Well-qualified nursing home administrators initiate and carry out projects, are comfortable with leading people and enjoy working with them. Such administrators are honest, reliable, can deal with stress and criticism, are flexible and cooperative in their dealings with others, show self-control, even in difficult situations, establish challenging goals and exert effort in achieving them, and use logic and analysis to solve problems in their work.