Service quality is, unlike goods quality, an abstract and elusive term. However, quality is very important to marketers and consumers in that it has many strategic benefits in contributing to profitability of marketing activities and consumers' problem-solving activities. The main purpose of this study is 1) to explore the differences of perception between consumers and providers about nursing service quality, 2) to identify the useful tool between two tools measuring nursing service quality. To achieve these purposes of the study, the questionnaire was developed and distributed to 210 nurses who worked at seven subjected hospitals in Seoul. Also, 280 people who had a direct experience with the subjected hospital nursing services at the time of screening were involved. They were randomly selected at the seven subjected hospitals during August to September of 1998. Among them, 165 responses from nurses and 229 responses from others resulted in worthy finds. The measurement instrument for a nursing services quality evaluation was modified from the SERVQUAL model originated from Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988). The reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated and showed high degree of internal consistency (Cronbachs' Alpha = .9353). For data analysis, SPSS/PC was used for descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and regression analysis. The results were as follows: 1) In the perception about nursing services quality, there were gap between consumers and providers. Especially the critical attributes in point of perception nursing services quality, naming satisfy, hygiene and performance factors, are very different contents. 2) In the comparison analysis of the usefulness tools it was turned out that SEVPERF model is more appropriate than SERVQUAL model. And in the analysis to identify the construct validity of the tool, it is turned out that the relationship between the constructing factors of the tool and the general satisfaction is significant.
Fruit ; Hygiene ; Marketing ; Mass Screening ; Nursing Service, Hospital ; Nursing Services* ; Nursing* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seoul ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: This study was performed to measure the nursing service quality being used SERVQUAL model and satisfaction that the admitted patients perceived. METHOD: The questionnaire founded on the SERVQUAL was developed and distributed to 300 patients at the three general hospitals in three provincial city, Korea. For data analysis, Cronbach's alpha frequencies, percentages, paired t-test, Pearson Correlation Coefficient were used. RESULT: In expectation, patients most highly perceived the assurance factor that was one among the 5 factors being constituted nursing service. In performance, patients most highly perceived the responsiveness factor. The performance degrees of the 5 factors and 20 attributes being constituted nursing service did not exceed the expectation degree of those. So the calculated figures for nursing service quality of the three subjected hospitals were all minus. In relation of the patients' demographics and nursing service characteristics to their general satisfaction, patients' sex, age, income and the all factors and attributes of nursing service had relation to their general satisfaction. CONCLUSION: It could be concluded that the nursing service quality of the three subjected hospitals was poor and the patients' demographic and nursing service characteristics had relation to their general satisfaction.
Demography ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Korea ; Nursing Service, Hospital ; Nursing Services* ; Nursing* ; Quality of Health Care ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Statistics as Topic

Recently, the hospitals in Korea has positively changed one way or another. Therefore hospital managers must focus on the nurses' role in terms of consumers' perception of overall image of hospitals and the degree of satisfaction of the consumers To achieve the purposes, the questionnaire was developed and distributed to 280 people who had a direct experience with nursing services subjected hospitals in Seoul at the time of screening. among them, 229 responses were turned out to be useful and used for final analysis. The measurement instrument for hospital nursing service quality evaluation was modified from the SERVQUAL model originated from Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry(1988). For data analysis, SPSS/ PC and PC-MDS program were used. The results were as follows : 1) The perception map showed that the seven subjected hospitals were divided into three groups. It could be interpreted that the hospitals in the same group had a strong competitive relationships. Because the nursing services' scores of hospitals C and E were higher than those of other hospitals, they could be served as a benchmark for the other hospitals. 2) The marketing place of hospital nursing services was divided by four. Since service generally had a strong point in nearby service market segment, Aiming an nearby hospital nursing services market segment by the hospital nursing services department was regarded as a good repositioning strategy. 3) When consumers evaluated the quality of hospital nursing services, they were greatly affected by the hospitals' overall image or other characteristics. Therefore, for improving hospital's nursing services, hospital nursing services department requires a great deal of labor to improve hospitals' overall image or other characteristics.
Korea ; Marketing ; Mass Screening ; Nursing Service, Hospital ; Nursing Services* ; Nursing* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seoul ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: This study was done to investigate changes in nursing students' moral judgment throughout their professional education, and to identify more suitable ways to evaluate ethics education by using P (%) scores only and P (%) scores with 4th scores. METHODS: The study consisted of cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys as well as a study using a nonequivalent control group pre-post experimental design. The participants were nursing students attending a university in Gyeongju, Korea. The data were collected from September 1, 2006 to October 31, 2009 using the Korean version of the Defining Issues Test. RESULTS: In the cross-sectional survey, there was no significant difference in the nursing students' moral judgment scores according to their school grades. In the longitudinal survey, nursing students' moral judgment scores did not change significantly over the duration of their education. In the nonequivalent control group study, the effectiveness of nursing ethics education was identified by P (%) scores only. CONCLUSION: The evidence indicates that nursing professional education does not influence the development of nursing students' moral judgment, and using P (%) scores only seems to be a better way compared to other ways to evaluate the effects of nursing ethics education.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Education, Nursing ; Education, Professional ; Ethics, Nursing ; Humans ; Judgment ; Korea ; Longitudinal Studies ; Research Design ; Students, Nursing

PURPOSE: this study was to investigate the perception gap on nursing service between consumers and providers. METHOD: the questionnaire founded on the SERVQUAL was developed and distributed to 300 patients and 210 nurses at the three subjected general hospitals in three provincial city, Korea during February to March, 2001. For data analysis, Cronbachs' Alpha, frequency, t-test, and paired t-test were used. RESULT: 1. In the gap analysis on the 20 properties constituting nursing service, providers almost all perceived higher than consumer in quality. Among them, the number of properties being statistically significant was 7 in the expectation, 18 in the important and 7 in the performance. 2. In the comparison analysis of the perception gap on the expectation-performance and the important-performance, it turned out that the subjected hospitals had to improve their equipment and facilities immediately. It was suggested a good strategy to strengthen the responsiveness factor and the assurance factor of nursing service. CONCLUSION: it could be concluded that nurses have to recognize the blind spot of their perception and endeavor to take away the perception gap between consumers and providers.
Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Korea ; Nursing Service, Hospital ; Nursing Services* ; Nursing* ; Optic Disk ; Quality of Health Care ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: This study was performed to measure hospital nurses' perceived patient safety culture and their safety care activities, and to investigate the relationship between these two factors. METHOD: This study was a cross-sectional survey. The participants were 301 nurses working at 4 general hospitals, and data collection was done from June 22 to June 30, 2009 by self-administrated questionnaires. RESULTS: With a possible score of 5 points, the average score for nurses' perceived patient safety culture was 3.34, and for their safety care activities, 4.25. There were perceived differences in patient safety culture and safety care activities according to age, position, length of work experience and number of patient safety education sessions attended. All sub-factors in patient safety culture had a positive relationship with safety care activities. Factors influencing nurses' safety care activities were number of patient safety education sessions attended, hospital environment, and supervisor/manager. These factors explained 58.2% of the variance. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that patient safety education is very important to improve nurses' safety care activity. So nursing supervisors/ managers should develop strategies encourage patient safety education, and make nurses' working environment safer.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Medical Errors ; Organizational Culture ; Patient Safety

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate effect of the SBAR-Collaborative Communication Program on nurses' communication skills and on collaboration between nurses and doctors. METHODS: From March 11 to November 11, 2013, data were collected from 180 hospital nurses working in a university hospital in Gyeonggi province. Outcomes were measured at three time intervals; before, three and six months after the program was completed. RESULTS: After participating in this program, there was a significant increase in nurses'communication skills but not in collaboration between nurses and doctors. None of the participants' general categories influenced nurses'communication skills at pre-test, but age, education level, total years of working and work department significantly influenced scores at 3 and 6 months. Work department was the only category for which there was a significant difference in collaboration between nurses and doctors at pre-test, and education level and work department were related to significant improvement at 6 months. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate that this program can improve communication skills for nurses and also, collaboration between nurses and doctors, especially for nurses under 25 years of age. Thus nursing and hospital managers should provide SBAR-Collaborative Communication Programs to new nurses in their job training.
Cooperative Behavior* ; Education ; Gyeonggi-do ; Nursing

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to understand and describe the leadership experience of clinical nurses. METHODS: During 2014, data were collected using focus group interviews. Three focus group interviews were held with a total of 20 clinical nurses participating. All interviews were recorded as they were spoken and transcribed and data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Fifteen categories emerged from the five main themes. 1) Thoughts on the leadership category: to lead others, to cope with problem situations adequately and to serve as a shield against difficulties. 2) Situations requiring leadership: situation that requires correct judgement, coping and situations that need coordination and cooperation. 3-1) Leadership behaviors: other-oriented approach and self-oriented approach. 3-2) Leadership behavior consequences: relevant compensation and unfair termination. 4-1) Facilitators of leadership: confidence and passion for nursing and external support and resources. 4-2) Barriers to leadership: non-supportive organization culture and deficiency in own leadership competencies. 5) Strategies of leadership development: strengthen leadership through self-development and organizational leadership development. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the results indicate that it is necessary to enhance clinical nurses' leadership role in healthcare. Enhancement can be achieved through leadership programs focused on enlarging leadership experience, constant self-development, leadership training, and development of leadership competencies suited to the nursing environment.
Adult ; Female ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; *Leadership ; Middle Aged ; Nurse's Role ; Nursing Staff, Hospital/*psychology ; Organizational Culture ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: This study was performed to develop the Job Satisfaction Scale for Clinical Nurses (JSS-CN) and verify its validity and reliability. METHODS: A preliminary 42-item version of the JSS-CN was developed through literature reviews and in-depth interviews. The draft scale was developed using thirty-seven items selected following content validity evaluation. Finally, thirty-three items with response options on a 5-point Likert scale were selected based on internal consistency reliability and construct validity. Subsequently, the test-retest reliability and convergent validity of the JSS-CN were verified. RESULTS: Six factors, namely, recognition from the organization and professional achievement, personal maturation through the nursing profession, interpersonal interaction with respect and recognition, accomplishment of accountability as a nurse, display of professional competency, and stability and job worth, were identified, which explained 59.7% of the total variance. The JSS-CN's Cronbach's α for the total scale was .95, and the intra-class correlation coefficient was .90. The correlation coefficient between the scores of the JSS-CN and Slavitt's scale was .75, and that between the JSS-CN and job performance was .53. CONCLUSION: Results showed that the JSS-CN has good reliability and validity. Therefore, it is concluded that the JSS-CN could be a useful tool for the measurement of the job satisfaction of clinical nurses in Korea.
Humans ; Job Satisfaction ; Korea ; Nursing ; Reproducibility of Results ; Social Responsibility ; Work Performance

PURPOSE: The purpose of this qualitative research was to investigate chronically ill patients' perception of hospital nurses. METHODS: Individual in-depth interviews and qualitative content analysis were used for data collection and analysis respectively. Participants were 13 chronically ill hospitalized patients or outpatients in three universities hospitals. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis suggested by Graneheim and Lundman (2004). RESULTS: Three themes emerged from the 10 sub-themes, which were categorized from the 21 condensed meaning units by interpreting the underlying meanings. The three themes were “person giving comfort and support by caring”, “person facilitating the process of healing”, and “person taking the initiative in power relations”. Two themes involved positive experiences of patients and the other included negative ones. CONCLUSION: The results showed that the participants perceived the hospital nurses as devoted to caring for patients and facilitating treatments, but authoritative in performing their duty. Based on these results, it is recommended that hospital nurses improve their nursing knowledge, skills and humanistic attitude.
Chronic Disease* ; Data Collection ; Humans ; Nursing ; Outpatients ; Qualitative Research