UBC Theses and Dissertations

UBC Theses Logo

UBC Theses and Dissertations

The use of advertising in university continuing nursing education Tkach, Mary

Abstract

This study examined the current marketing and advertising practices used in university continuing nursing education. The focus of this study was on evaluation of the effectiveness of direct-mail advertising pieces used by this adult education institution. Direct-mail pieces provided by survey respondents were assessed by independent raters using the Evaluation Tool for Print-Related Advertising which was developed specifically for use in this study. Direct-mail advertising was found to be moderately effective as it was currently used in divisions of university continuing nursing education in Canada and the United States. This result indicated that there is significant room for improvement in the area of planning and developing direct-mail advertising pieces for university continuing nursing education. Institutional advertising has not been used by these divisions to inform the target population about the philosophy, aims, purposes and ideas of continuing nursing education, nor has institutional advertising been used to inform the general public or potential sources of funding about the benefits to be derived by the public from supporting continuing education activities in this profession which would include improved patient care. Little effort has been made to inform the future target market which is comprised of student nurses about the purpose and need to continue education beyond initial graduation in this profession. Variance in scores of effective advertising were found to be influenced by a variety of factors. These factors included the media mix currently used by university continuing nursing education divisions, the media mix which was proposed to be used in the future by the directors of these divisions, the age of the director, the knowledge that the director had about advertising and marketing concepts and practices, the time spent by the director on completing advertising responsibilities on a weekly basis, the financial resources which were allocated for advertising expenditures during the fiscal year 1979-1980 and the financial resources proposed for future advertising expenditures, the educational preparation of the director in the field of nursing, and the attitude of the director towards the use and preparation of advertising for the continuing nursing education division. The Evaluation Tool for Print-Related Advertising was found to be a reliable evaluation tool and a useful evaluation tool because it can be used to identify areas which require improvement in direct-mail advertising pieces while they are in the process of development.

Item Media

Item Citations and Data

Rights

For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.