Emotional Intelligence in Nursing: Roles, Effects, and Skills

This essay delves into the crucial role of emotional intelligence (EI) in the nursing profession. It highlights the key attributes of EI, including self-awareness, self-management, social skills, social awareness, and relationship management, and explains how these contribute to effective communication and patient care. The essay examines different leadership styles, such as transformational and transactional leadership, and explores models of emotional intelligence, including the ability model and Goleman's model, outlining their components and applications in nursing. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of EI in maintaining nursing staff, increasing job satisfaction, preventing burnout, and fostering positive team relationships. The essay also discusses the managerial pyramid and specific roles of managers and supervisors, along with the effects of low emotional intelligence on staff motivation, stress management, and overall work environment, supported by relevant references.

Emotional intelligence in nursing

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE in nursing:
• main standard for accomplishment among different
individuals but emotional intelligence is now considered an
important attribute in nursing professionals
• enhanced capacity for comprehending as well as perceiving
not only their own feelings but also feelings of others
• initiate respectable association with others and increase the
efficiency by which they communicate with nurses

Important attributes:
• self-awareness
• self-administration
• social skills
• social awareness
• relationship management

Self-awareness:
• attribute that reflects their own comprehension of the
feelings as well as that of the others
• attribute also helps the individuals to possess the ability to
express the feelings in a certain manner that is liked and
expected by others
• individuals become delicate and they remain ready to
foresee the reaction of others to a definite feeling

Self-management:
• attribute helps the individuals to allude to a limit where the
person is able to control successfully over his own emotions
and feelings
• it would make the group develop a good feeling and at the
same time feel respected (Feather 2009)

Social abilities:
• help in alluding to the comprehension of the feelings
of the others and the ways such individuals react to
the different surrounding situations.

Leadership:
• by which an individual develops the ability to utilize their
interpersonal abilities so that a particular objective can be
achieved by influencing others
• associated with increased state of emotional and social
intelligence so that the leaders can engage themselves in
effective feedback giving and taking sessions

Two types:
• Transformational leaderships:
Style mainly believes in accentuating persuading the adherents
so that positive kinds of results are obtained in the present
working climate and environment
• Transactional leadership:
Maintains compliance with the followers through methods of
rewards and punishments.

Models of Emotional Intelligence:
Ability model: By Caruso, Salovey and Mayer
• first level usually guides the individuals in developing skills that are needed to
understand and thereby interpret other’s feelings through facial expressions
• second level is mainly focused on utilizing feelings that helps in directing the
thinking process
• third level mainly incorporates the attributes by which one can comprehend the
feelings that mainly include characterizing the feelings (Sadri, 2012)
• last level mainly incorporates the ability of an individual to oversee feeling through
effective ways of dealing with sentiments of oneself as well as with that of the
other

Goleman Model:
• individual skills: self-control, mindfulness and
inspiration
• social skills: attributes that include sympathy and
aptitudes. These help in reflecting comprehension of
others emotions and concerns.

Importance of EI in nursing field:
• helps them to maintain the nursing staff
• increases the nursing leader’s capacity to increase the employment
satisfaction among the nurses
• prevent them from burning out
• employee retention
• help in diminishing the complicacy of work among the nursing members
that will in turn increase job satisfaction
• developing proper relationships among the team members
• staff maintenance, patience satisfaction, efficient organization workflow
• reducing mistreatment by promoting effective collaborative work

Managerial pyramid:
• Strategic level is the highest level
• Tactical levels
• operational level (Reauena et al., 2014)

specific roles of managers:
• managers are also seen to make commitments and take
decisions that require expenditure of significant unit
resources.
• the managers have significant external focus comprising of
the worlds outside of the unit whereas the supervisors mainly
have the role that ensures more internally focused duty of
implementing the decision of the manager through the work
of the employees

Specific role of supervisors:
• supervisors mainly have the role that ensures more internally
focused duty of implementing the decision of the manager
through the work of the employees
• When the managers decide what to do, the supervisors have
the duty in deciding strategies about how to do the work and
how to achieve the goals that are set by the managers

Effects of Low emotional intelligence:
• severe impacts on both the group as well as leaders
• affects the inspiration of the staff as well as their efficiency
• leaders will not be able to develop teams who are emotionally
connected
• cannot deal with stress effectively
• absenteeism increases (Rankin et al,. 2013)
• work insecurity that affects the working climate

References:
• Feather, R. (2009). Emotional intelligence in relation to nursing leadership: does it
matter?.Journal Of Nursing Management, 17(3), 376-382.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2008.00931.x
• Rankin, B. (2013). Emotional intelligence: enhancing values-based practice and
compassionate care in nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 69(12), 2717-2725.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jan.12161
• Resuena, Suzhie (2014) "The Three Models Of Emotional Intelligence The
Performance Institute". The Performance Institute. N.p.,
• Sadri, G. (2012). Emotional intelligence and leadership development. Public
Personnel Management, 41(3), 535-548. Retrieved on April 2, 2016, from
http://ppm.sagepub.com/content/41/3/535.short

Thank you