The teaching of clinical administration: opportunities and problems of role ambiguity.

The challenge of teaching clinical administration can felicitously be met by the ward director of the psychiatric inpatient ward. The theory of patient management centers around formation of an administrative alliance such that the patient becomes "coadministrator" of his treatment. The ward director must convey this and other basic principles; must deal with a variety of resistances to learning and practice of clinical administration; must function as supervisor while simultaneously administrating; and, finally, must orchestrate power and influence in relation to his role to achieve the most effective functioning of the ward team.