Perceived internal marketing, organizational commitment and turnover rate of Nurses of DOH retained hospitals in Metro Manila.

Nurse turnover is a critical issue facing the healthcare industry.  Turnover results to the loss of intellectual and human capital of skillful nurses which leads to shortage of nurses and compromised quality of care.  Conversely, a driven and committed nursing staff serves as a foundation for implementing initiatives towards the improvement of healthcare quality.  Chang & Chang (2009) suggest that internal marketing strategies effectively enhance and develop employee's commitment and reduce turnover.  However, only a few studies have examined internal marketing and organizational commitment (Ting, 2011).  In addition, most of the researches examine the relationship of internal marketing to turnover intention (Yeun & Jeon, 205); Lee et al., 2011; Choi & Ha, 2007) rather than the actual turnover rate.  Hence, this study aims to know the relationship between internal marketing as perceived by the nurses, organizational commitment and turnover rate of nurses.

Cross-sectional study design was utilized involving 304 eligible nurses from 7 DOH retained hospitals in Metro Manila.  Two standard questionnaires namely Internal Marketing Scale and Three-Component Model Organizational Commitment Survey (TCM-OCS) were used for data collection after being examined for reliability and content of validity by three experts while the Armstrong Index was used for the calculation of the turnover rate.  Findings of this study can be utilized in formulating internal marketing strategies and creating nursing services program that promotes retention of nurses and employees' organizational commitment.