| This exploratory study uses qualitative and quantitative research methods to examine the conceptual domain of service quality for inpatient nursing services. It focuses on several components of service quality that are relevant to nursing services but are not part of the widely accepted service quality model developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry. These components include the quality of interpersonal relationships between service providers and customers, service provider effort, emotion and affect, social support, individualized service, and sacred experiences. The purpose of the study is to broaden and deepen the conceptual domain of service quality for one service industry by (a) focusing on elements of service quality that have received insufficient attention in previous research, (b) including service providers in the formulation of the conceptualization, and (c) examining the extremely positive and negative service experiences of inpatient nurses and their patients. A conceptual definition of inpatient nursing service quality is provided, and an instrument is presented which is based on that reconceptualization. The instrument's construct validity, nomological validity, and reliability are examined and the findings are favorable. The results of the study reveal that service quality perceptions for hospital inpatients are comprised of five dimensions: uncertainty reduction, compassion, reliability, close relationships, and individualized care. Additionally, individualized care and compassion are found to predict patients' perceptions of hospital service quality, and compassion and reliability and found to predict patients' willingness to recommend the hospital to others and to use the hospital's services for future hospitalizations. In the study's qualitative analysis respect for sacredness is identified as an additional dimension of inpatient nursing service quality. Nurses' service quality perceptions are found to be similar to those of patients but contain an additional dimension: effectance--experienced success in facilitating a positive outcome for patients. Evidence is presented that the conceptual domain of service quality reflected in the model developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry does not capture the essence of service quality for inpatient nursing services. It is argued that researchers should conduct industry-specific qualitative research before using service quality measurement tools developed in other industries. |
