Patient Satisfaction Measurement For In-Hospital Services Delivered By Nurses: Guidelines For Improving Practice In Africa

Hospitals in developing countries in Africa cannot focus on improving only the technological and operational side of their service offering in trying to adhere to the stipulations of the World Health Organization. To truly become competitive and remain viable over the long term, hospitals would also need to attend to their services marketing strategies and ensure that the level of patient service offered is of high quality. Consequently, the primary objective of the research reflected in this article was to explore the level of service provided by the nursing staff at the military hospital in Libreville, Gabon, with regard to the variables of reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The military hospital has been very successful in attracting more patients, and their achievements could provide valuable guidance to other hospitals on the African continent to improve their practices. The population was defined as all existing patients of the military hospital in Gabon. A systematic probability sampling technique was applied and self-administered questionnaires were distributed to the patients once they had signed the released form. The findings revealed that, in respect of the level of service experienced, the nurses were more successful in addressing the empathy and assurance dimensions of service quality than the responsiveness and reliability dimensions. Overall, though, it seems that all the dimensions measured in the study were adequately addressed by the nurses. By incorporating these dimensions into their services marketing strategies, hospitals in Africa could benefit from improved service quality, patient loyalty, market share, and profit.