Perception of Internal Marketing by Surgical Nurses and its Role in Service-Centered Encounter and Patient Satisfaction in Hospitals

The health care industry and its sensitive environment, improving nurse's perception of internal marketing and its emphasis on employees empowerment and their jobs, can enhance the internal environment of the hospitals and the patient satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to determine the perception of internal marketing by surgical nurses and its role in service-centered encounter and patient satisfaction in hospitals. The present study was a descriptive study that its statistical population consisted of the nurses of the surgical department of hospitals in Fars province. This research began in October 2017, which was distributed by purposive sampling method in a total of 684 questionnaires distributed and after deleting the questionnaires with incomplete answers, the number of questionnaires was 546. To collect data, “Internal Marketing Perception Questionnaire”, “Service-Centered Encounter Questionnaire" and" Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire” were used. The validity of the instruments were measured by Content Validity Index (CVI) and reliability by Cronbach's alpha method. Data was analyzed by SPSS 18.0. The value of F was equal to 44.692 which was significant at 1% level. As a result, service-oriented exposure is positively correlated with patient satisfaction. Also, understanding the internal marketing among nurses in the surgical unit has a significant positive moderating effect on the service- centered encounter and patient satisfaction (F = 31. 074, P < 0.001) and (F = 37.256, P < 0.001). Service-centered encounter has a positive correlation with patient satisfaction, and internal marketing perception has a positive moderating effect on service-oriented encounter and patient satisfaction. It is suggested that by implementation of performance-based encounter assessment, emphasize on the patient needs by nurses.