Nursing services: an imperative to health care marketing

Abstract

<p class="a">Nurses comprise a significant portion of the work force in any health care organization. This work force is one having the maximum exposure to patients. Further, they work hand in hand with the various departments of the organization. Though an unintended consequence of nursing care, nurses form a potential marketing tool for any health care organization. In that marketing tool role, however, there are hindrances that nurses face. These may result in an unhappy work environment and potentially impact the overall image of the organization. Added to this, nurses may not always be equipped with the knowledge and expertise they need to meet current demands of their position and thus not promote the best nursing role for marketing purposes. Interestingly, good nursing care goes hand-in-hand with good marketing efforts in spite of this being an unintended consequence. The promotion of a strong and highly capable nursing image is an important strategy in marketing of health care services.</p> The evolution of professional organizations and accreditation agencies has resulted in setting specific standards of practice for nursing graduates. These standards help to ensure delivery of patient care of some predetermined quality. Indirectly this offers marketability to the organization by promotion of the nursing image. At the executive level, nurse leaders can play an important role in development of nursing strategy formulation and at the same time influence strategic marketing design. This paper provides an overview of the role nurses may play in certain aspects of marketing.<p> </p

The Roles of Nurses as Marketers: A Literature Review

“…The literature review disclosed that the nurse’s efforts in marketing are limited, and they remained invisible for a long period. The study suggested that this invisibility due to several reasons, particularly the lack of nurse’s understanding of the significance of their role and position in leading change in the healthcare system, the lack of knowledge about the concept of marketing (Marrone, 2016) as a comprehensive approach to the business (Farayibi, 2017), which include creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging services that have value for customers (American Marketing Association [AMA], n.d.), and due to the well-recognised phenomenon of burnout that exist among nurses (Kagan et al, 2015; Montoya & Kimball, 2012). Although these trends remained among nurses for a long period, the winds of change can be seen obviously as the result of the effort of several nursing foundations, such as the ICN and the IOM and many scholars who encouraged change among nurses.…”

“…Montoya and Kimball (2012) identified numerous constraints that could face nurse’s role as marketers, in particular, (a) the phenomenon of burnout existing among nurses due to the lack of administration support, lack of engagement, and frustration, (b) the lack of curricular emphasis on marketing and (c) the lack of knowledge regarding research design techniques and data analysis due to inadequate higher education in business or health administration among nurse leaders. Furthermore, Kieft et al (2014) interviewed a sample of Dutch nurses from several fields, including mental healthcare, hospital care, and nursing home care to comprehend their views about how their work and their work environment contribute to positive patient experiences.…”

“…To achieve these roles, Mcur and Meyer (2006) recommended creating a new awareness among registered nurses of their role in the marketing of primary healthcare services and improving their skills in this regard (Table 2). Therefore, Mcur and Meyer (2006) and Montoya and Kimball (2012) identified the role of nurses controlling the 4P's of the marketing mix, that is, the product/or service, place, promotion, and price (McCarthy, 1964), as an unintended outcome of nursing practice that includes daily direct contact with patients, controlling the care quality and services offered., communicating information about services and products to the patient and their family, and effective delivery of the services and products in terms of pricing and care distribution at the correct time and place. Besides, Montoya and Kimball (2012) highlighted the significant role of nurses in implementing the strategy of providing a 'humanising' experience to patients, which is also called the patient-centred care model.…”

Marketing Nursing: An Approach Related to Nursing Profession

“…Regarding (Montoya and Kimball, 2012), if we will have nursing image high and strong promotion we can have assured good marketing health care Internal marketing, nurses job satisfaction.…”

The Role and Promotion of Nursing

“…Th ey work in various parts of health care institutions and represent a powerful marketing tool of a health care institution 1,2 . Th ey signifi cantly infl uence the image of medical institutions.…”