Marketing Emergency Services: The Degree of Involvement Among Nurse Executives

Abstract

The purpese of this study is to determine the degree of invo1vement among nurse executi~es i~ marketi~g emergency s~rvices. Know1edge ther~by obtained will provide identification of cu~rent marketing.trends in emergency services as wel.l as areas ofmarketing content in education programs preparing nurse executfves. A questionnaire~ 11Emergency Services Marketing Activity Survey 11 (ESMAS)~ specific for marketing e~ergency Services was ·adapted from Kotler•s (1975) 11 Systematic Marketing Audit. 11 Items were dev-eloped far·· each major category (marketing environment; marketing system; and ma·rketing activity}'. purported· by Kotler (1975) to be·essentia1 in eva1uating marketing activities. The ESMAS was reviewed by a panel of fie1d experts including facu1ty invo1ved in teaching marketing and finance in hea)th care services. Based on recommendations from the pane1, severa1 items were revised and made less ambiguous. The revi sed vers i on of the ESMAS Questi onna i re was ma i 1 e.9 to Di rectors of Nurs i.ng (DON) and Emergency Department Head Nurses ( EDHN) in 114 Georgia hospitals 1isted by the American Hospital Association Gui de (1985} as· provi ders of emergency servi ces. Study subj ects were asked to respond on a sca 1 e of one to 'seven to .the de·gree to whi eh each marketing emergency services item is a part of their role as nurse executive. Responses were received from 42 DONs and 37 EDHNs. Descriptive information was compi1ed and t-test analysis was done to describe the V involvement of DONs and EDHNs in marketing emergency services and to describe the relationship between the involvement of DONs and EDHNs in their marketing involvement. Involvement was divided into three categories: a rating 1.0-2.9 was considered low involvement, 3.0-4.9 wa? considered moderate involvement,_ and 5.0:7.0 was considered h1gh involvement~ It was·found that·nurses were involved in marketing overall at the moderate level·. There we~e significant differences at the 0.029 level in the involvement of DONs and EDHNs in marketing environment category. There were no significant differences between the involvement of the two groups in marketing system nor in marketing activities categories.