Competency of nurses towards service quality at a multispecialty hospital, Chennai

A competency is a set of skills, related knowledge and attribute that allow an individual to successfully perform a task or an activity within a specific job function stated by UNIDO (2002). Nolan (1998) said that competency is an individual's actual performance, whereas competence describes the capacity of individuals to perform the functions of their job. This study was carried out in a multi speciality hospital, Chennai. This study was done to identify the success factors for nurses and to measures the gap between the performance of the nurses and the requirement of the patients and hospital from them. Data were obtained by using a structured questionnaire. Total sample size was 96, out of which 45 were nurses and 51 were patients. Different statistical tools like percentage method, mean, standard deviation, chi square had been used in this research. It was found that nurses were ratings themselves very high instead of patients. The nurses were well aware about patient's health safety and security; the patients also expressed overall satisfaction towards hospital and nurses services. The research was concluded that the nurses should be trained and given authority to take forward decisions at the time of any crisis. Thus, nurses are the assets of any hospital and it is the hospital management duty to help them to grow and develop to be more competent at their job.