Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Policy and Administration

Advisor

Michael Knight

Abstract

Many healthcare professions struggle with knowing what the entry-level educational requirement should be for their profession. This study looked at the educational level of hiring managers for respiratory therapy and whether that affected their decisions on hiring associate or baccalaureate degree graduates in the state of Pennsylvania. The quantitative internet-based questionnaire surveyed respiratory therapy hiring managers in hospitals in Pennsylvania. The power theory, with the use of expert power, organizational culture and change, and ethnographic principle, was used to examine how hiring managers choose their employees. An invitation was sent to 70 respiratory hiring managers in Pennsylvania to participate on the internet-based survey. The results showed a statistically significant finding using a Chi-Square analysis that the hiring managers in Pennsylvania prefer to hire associate degree graduates compared to baccalaureate degree graduates [X2(2, N = 58) = 7.52, p = .023]. There were also statistically significant findings using a Spearman’s correlation, that associate degree graduates and baccalaureate degree graduates possess all 69 competencies as outlined by the AARC 2015 and Beyond initiative [rs (57) = 1, p = <.001]. The last piece of statistically significant finding was that the Covid-19 pandemic did not change the minds of hiring managers on the entry-level of the profession [X2(1, N = 58) = 7.66, p = .006]. The implications for positive social change are that the current entry-level practice is meeting the needs of employers in Pennsylvania and allows for less barriers to diverse individuals that are seeking to gain a college education and a career in healthcare.

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