Emotional Intelligence and Healthcare

This assignment explores the significance of emotional intelligence (EQ) within the healthcare field. It examines how EQ impacts various aspects of healthcare, including the quality of patient care, effective teamwork among medical professionals, and the ability to provide culturally competent care. Students are expected to delve into relevant theories and concepts of EQ, and analyze its practical applications in diverse healthcare settings.

Running head: Theory informing leadership practice 1
Cultural Competence in Nursing Leadership and Management
Author Name(s)
Institutional Affiliation(s)

Theory informing leadership practice2
Abstract
Leadership and management are essential elements of any organization and healthcare is not an
exception. Health professionals at the management positions should be able to strike a balance
between the health professionals, other supporting staffs, and the patients. The profession of
nursing works within firm interpersonal relationships. This feature makes this profession a
people-oriented role that humanism occupies its core position. The professionals working in this
field need to examine their altitude, cultural competence and behaviors as these attributes are
vital in their roles. The nursing administration summarizes the primary purpose of the
organization as it identifies the practice and responsibilities of other professionals. Therefore, the
management needs always to check that every staff works within the principles of primary care.
Cultural competence as one of the principles, it is a fundamental element that every nursing
administration should encourage. This paper will analyze the issue of cultural competence as one
of the challenges facing many healthcare organizations today.
Keywords: Cultural Competence, Emotional Intelligence, Leadership Styles

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Cultural Competence in Nursing Leadership and Management
Transcultural awareness and competency are two concepts that are occupying a pivotal
role in the nursing field. Nursing is a profession that interacts with people from all over the
world, and there is a need to exercise cultural competence in addressing the issues of health care
disparities. This paper will analyze the idea of cultural competence in nursing leadership and
management. The paper will first define cultural competence and then relate it to the theory of
emotional intelligence. Further, the paper will discuss the leaders’ influence to reach a culturally
competent healthcare.
Definition of Culturally Competent Care
By analysis of various medical definitions, the profession of nursing defines cultural
competence as the nurse knowledge and understanding of the people’s cultures. It is an
adaptation to consumer’s way of life regarding health approaches and interventions. A review by
(Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015) states that cultural competence is a concept within a healthcare
professional that recognizes the significance of culture. The work further says that cultural
competence is a practice that assesses cross-cultural relations. Therefore, it requires healthcare
professionals to tailor their services to meet the health demands as shaped by diverse cultures of
their patients. A culturally competent health care system acknowledges, integrates, and interacts
with health dilemmas from different consumer populations.
Healthcare professionals must be cultural sensitive, self-aware, and have personal
experience by interacting with patients coming from diverse cultural backgrounds (Cicolini et al.,
2015). Conferring with Sperry (2012) interpretation, a culturally competent person can naturally
and efficiently exercise cultural awareness, knowledge, skills, and sensitivity while caring for
people coming from diverse cultural backgrounds. However, it is not just enough to have all

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these skills. The important thing is their application in solving difficult situations. From a
healthcare point of view, cultural competence refers to a professional set of skills, knowledge,
and understanding of diverse groups. These attributes enable someone to assist patients coming
from different cultural beliefs comfortably. It also includes the respect to patient’s culture and
avoiding a bias influence while offering care to the patient (Hines, 2014)
Literature Review
A few studies (El Amouri & O’Neill, 2014; Cicolini et al., 2015; Dauvrin & Lorant,
2015; Soule, 2014) stressed the importance and outlined the understanding of cultural
competence. According to (El Amouri & O’Neill, 2014), the study explained cultural
competence as nurse capability to undertake their duties within different families, clients, or
communities’ cultural context. This study conducted a purposive sample that involved six
government and four private hospitals. In total, 153 nurse-leaders agreed to participate. The
study found that there is a demand for cultural competence in the delivery of care due to the
increasing immigration. The study also demonstrated a need for the nurse leadership to promote
staff’s capacity to exercise practical and relevant cultural competency in all healthcare settings.
This technique will see healthcare setting embrace the increasing multicultural mix.
In the study of (Cicolini et al., 2015), the work defined cultural competence as a process
where healthcare professionals integrate their cultural awareness, sensitivity, and experience in
one’s professional practice. The study used the highest degree of neutrality to identify healthcare
leaders in respective health service. This cross-sectional study concluded the presence of three
aspects. The first one was a reasonable cultural competence performance. The second one was a
moderate-high cultural sensitivity, and last one was an average cultural awareness among the
nurses.

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In the study of (Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015), an analysis of 507 healthcare specialists
revealed their social relationships while they interacted with other healthcare professionals. The
study sort to relate the cultural competence of two healthcare groups. That is; it projected to
match healthcare leaders' cultural competence against the followers' (staffs) cultural competence.
This study identified a close association between the two groups’ cultural competence. This
analysis noted that cultural competence is an element that affects healthcare leadership
significantly.
Soule (2014) undertook a study that aimed to examine the cultural competence within a
healthcare setting. The survey defined cultural competence as healthcare professionals approach
that focuses on care that respects the consumer’s values and beliefs. The author focused on a
qualitative analytical design. Her study involved international participants from different
disciplines such medicine, social sciences, nursing, and medicine. This approach allowed her to
acquire comprehensive information regarding cultural competence. The study concluded that
cultural awareness involves three themes, the awareness, involvement, and application. Even
though this study described each theme, it failed to focus on cultural competence within the
nursing discipline.
The Impact of Nurse’s Emotional Intelligence to Improve Cultural Competency
There have been lots of studies on the topic of emotional intelligence. Emotional
intelligence (EI). EI is one’s capacity to effectively understand and control one’s emotions and
those of others (Harms & Crede, 2010). EI is a personal characteristic that has a significant
impact on the concept of cultural competency in the healthcare profession. There are five
components of emotional intelligence. These include the self-awareness, emotional social skill,
self-regulation, empathy, and internal motivation (Harms and Crede, 2010).

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Emotional Self-awareness
This element is the ability to recognize one’s feelings, the cause of those feelings, biases,
and their sensitivities (Rosenstein, 2015). Emotional self-awareness further allows someone to
grasp the development of the emotions and their potential. Understanding personal feelings
provide adequate self-support. It then extends to help someone with the strength to support
others in their difficult times. In a healthcare setting, EI helps one to acknowledge and form a
deeper knowledge of the different cultures while interacting with patients and their family
members. Before attending to a patient, EI allows clinicians to examine their self-reflection
before engaging with a patient. After that, they get the strength to study their cultural values,
behaviors or beliefs. If the examination of these attributes confirms that one cannot manage their
biases while handing the patient, they should understand that limitation and allow another
competent colleague to attend to the patient. For example, if a nurse is aware that she cannot give
a reasonable counseling on abortion due to her cultural beliefs, then she should allow other
nurses to do it. Self-awareness also allows a nurse to understand their culture, accept the cultural
differences, and diversities. It doesn’t matter how much power or title that someone has. What
matters is recognizing the patient’s culture, and desisting from giving a treatment that the patient
claims that it is against his or her culture.
Self-regulate
This element is one’s ability to manage disruptive thoughts and moods. It is also the
ability to revisit judgments and to think before acting on them. This EI component enables a
nurse to show trustworthiness, integrity and accommodate changes. Since healthcare involves
diverse cultures, self-regulation allows a nurse to incorporate a new positive behavior that is
different from his/her own culture. It is more of fitting into a new lifestyle. For instance, a nurse

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brought up in the USA would need to self-regulate his/her beliefs to fit in in the daily routines of
Indian patients if he/she is working in India.
Empathy
This one is the capacity to understand other people’s emotional makeup (Fitzpatrick &
McCarthy, 2016). These skills can be seen in the way leaders lead their team, manage and build
trust. In a healthcare setting, professionals should understand that health care systems interact
with people from diverse cultures. As diversity across the cultures increase, nurses would need to
deal with day-to-day challenges coming from patients as well as ethical dilemmas. Further, as the
healthcare embraces technology, this will be another world that also comes with its problems.
Nurses would need to be stronger as they work in a collaborative team that is both in the same
room or on the network.
Internal motivation
Motivation in IE means a person’s desire to work for good reasons that are outside
financial gains. It is a passion to work to save lives, bringing joy to others, or a willingness to
learn. It is a tendency to follow goals with liveliness and persistence. In (Paez, Allen, Carson &
Cooper, 2008), the cross-sectional study aimed at determining whether a relationship exists
between cultural motivation and work competence. The study found that care providers who
demonstrated attitudes that reflected greater cultural motivation did not have difficulties in
reducing disparities.
Social Skills
These are competent skills that enable people to manage their relationships and build
networks (Singh & Dali, 2013). It is the capacity to get along with others by finding common
ground and building a rapport. In healthcare, of social skills include effectiveness in organizing

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changes, being persuasive, creating and managing teams (Goleman 1996). Healthcare leaders
need to be conversant with social skills that eliminate language and cultural barriers. EI can help
healthcare leaders to handle sociocultural factors such as community differences, moral,
customs, ethics, language, and other cultural beliefs (Parvanta, Nelson & Harner, 2017). For
example, different cultures use body language, interpersonal distances, or eye contacts to
communicate different meaning. A mismatch of any of the body languages may create a cultural
norm problem hence raising an ethical question.
A Review of Emotional Intelligence Theory as A Theoretical Approach Cultural
Competence in Healthcare Delivery
In healthcare, as with other sectors, intelligence is a significant factor for efficient
performance. Healthcare profession cuts across different backgrounds of patients and families.
All these people come with anxiety, and problems regarding their diagnosis, treatment, and
financial complexities. Emotional intelligence is helpful among other qualities of a healthcare
profession. In the healthcare environment, health workers also encounter other problems like
misunderstanding among themselves and hurdles of organizational culture.
The required skills for a healthcare professional falls either under soft and hard skills
(Klaus, 2008). Hard skills are the practical skills that someone can learn from a training such as
medical schools or advanced nursing training. On the other hand, soft skills are distinct, and they
include interpersonal, professionalism, and communication skills among others (Vijayalakshm,
2017). The application of all these skills relies heavily on emotional intelligence. The two
components of EI are the personal and social emotions (Mandal, Shanwal & Emmerling, 2008).
Therefore, from a theory point, EI refers to a wide range of professional competencies.

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In practice, any leader can only accomplish the work objectives through others.
Healthcare leaders oversee the care efforts of other staff members. At all levels, leaders and other
professionals set the EI culture. This culture has direct impacts on their relationships with
patients and that with their colleagues (Mrkonjic & Grondin 2011). When a healthcare system
overlooks the development of the EI culture, the professionals dispose themselves to disruptive
behaviors (Oliveira et al., 2016). Creating healthcare environments that are non-focused leads to
emotional exhaustion and poorer emotional health in nurses (Cummings 2009). Creating the
same healthcare with EI environment enhances nurse satisfaction, and retention (Cummings
2009). Poor EI in healthcare does damage the organization’s reputation. Patients are likely to
seek services elsewhere where nurses understand their diversity.
Reuven Bar-On, a pioneer scholar in EI, provides a compelling description of EI as an
array of non-cognitive competencies, capabilities, and skills that inspires one’s ability to do well
in coping with environmental stresses and pressures” (Stein & Book, 2010). Indeed, public
health and private healthcare are fields troubled with environmental pressure and demands with
which nurses must endlessly persevere.
Emotional Intelligence is a vehicle for building alliances. It is a tool for repairing
damaged relationships. Healthcare leaders and professionals must understand the challenging
nature of the work and the difficult times that fray relationships due to cultural backgrounds,
discriminations, need for recognition, or competition for opportunities. However, the same
people that have diverse cultures in the same arena must rely on each other for survival. Nurses
need their colleagues as the colleagues need them. Similarly, patients need the nurses as nurses
need them.

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Goleman is another leading scholar of EI. He suggested that 67% of the required
competencies for successful leaders fall under the realm of emotional intelligence (Goleman
1996). He stated that emotional intelligence was a skill that has two dimensions. The first one is
the personal competence and the other one as the social competence. In the study of (Gorji1 &
Ghareseflo, 2011), the report sort to examine the relationship between cultural and emotional
intelligence. It also studied the effects of EI in the university employees’ performance. The
sampled composed of 115 randomly selected employees. This study found that application of EI
in a culturally diverse working relationship increased employees’ performance.
While emotional intelligence skills might not be innate, one can develop them through
learning (Goleman 1996). Also, the development of these skills requires a willingness to adjust
personal shortcomings and to show a sense of humility. Unlike cognitive skills where you can
correct an error through referring to the facts or honing up behavioral skill, correcting EI works
through taking feedbacks positively even though they feel personal.
Influence of leaders on the cultural competence of healthcare professionals.
Culturally competence in healthcare is a practice drawn from the provision of the social
impartiality and principles of fundamental rights irrespective of the social framework. The
provisions of social justice and application of cultural competence in healthcare can significantly
reduce disparities. Currently, there are global migrations. This migration causes a shortage of
nurses, and a need for culturally competence skills among nurses (Miller et al., 2008).
One role of healthcare leaders is to advocate for equality and the rights of the
disadvantaged. Despite that leaders start by encouraging this practice within a small group of
employees, the practice will eventually transform the organizational culture and consumers will
know that the institution treats everyone with respect. In (Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015), the study

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hypothesized that healthcare workers would become cultural competent by observing how their
leaders practice it. The study also hypothesized that the characters of a leader could have a
significant effect on the healthcare management including the efficacy of cultural competence.
The study discovered an improvement of cultural competence among healthcare staffs due to
their association with their culturally competent leaders. Culturally competency in nursing
leadership is a tool setting for a change in self, the organization, and other staffs to accomplish
effective health results for the entire society.
In (El Amouri & O’Neill, 2014), the study reported that leaders of both public and private
hospitals practice cultural competence. The leaders demonstrated an insight that multicultural
care practice is an aspect that can have a significant impact on health provision. However, this
purely depends on the way healthcare leaders handle the issue. The ultimate goal of this study
was to examine the effects of leadership styles and their influence to the other worker’s cultural
competence. This study found that leadership style can significantly impact the way the staffs
performance regarding the expectations of a healthcare institution. Different leadership styles
bestow different freedom of management to the leaders (El Amouri & O’Neill, 2014). An
authoritarian leadership style is more likely to restrict leaders in making and implementing
changes. On the other hand, transformative style can stimulate the intellectual capacity of the
employees (El Amouri & O’Neill, 2014). Therefore, transformation leadership has higher
chances of incorporating new changes to include cultural competence that the authoritarian style.
Organizational factors are another approach that can also influence cultural competence.
According to (Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015), the degree of support that the organizational
environment offers in encouraging cultural competence determines how health professionals
would develop their cultural competence. There are various avenues for this approach.

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Healthcare agencies and organizations can provide the infrastructure that supports culturally
congruent to the consumers (Douglas et al., 2009). Similarly, organizations can strengthen the
realm's workforce by cultivating cultural competency through action plans, training, and
education. For instance, (Jackson & Gracia, 2014) states that U.S. government agencies, private
and academic institutions provide educational materials to support health-care providers in
acquiring and applying cultural competency skills. Also, the work of (Wilson-Stronks, Lee,
Cordero, Kopp, & Galvez, 2008) states that it is the responsibility of the organization’s
leadership to implement policies and procedures that aim at optimizing the channels for care in
culturally diverse populations. The work also states that leaders should ensure the integration of
such policies throughout the organization.
Recommendations for Supporting Nurse Leaders in Ensuring the Effective Delivery of
Culturally Competent Care.
There are numerous avenues for effective delivery of a culturally competent care.
However, the journey begins with healthcare leaders themselves learning and readdressing the
issue of cultural “competency.” They should lead other staff by undertaking a cultural awareness
competent training. In (Ong-Flaherty, 2015), the work states that education approach supported
by leaders is one mechanism for developing critical cultural awareness. The work also
recommends exposure to new cultures through a method of cross-cultural interactions. This
technique can enhance cultural relativity and cultural humility.
Another recommendation regards both the healthcare organizations setting and health
care providers. In (Saha, Beach & Cooper, 2008), the study recommends that healthcare leaders
should implement principles that focus on both cultural competence and patient centeredness. In

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this approach, this study finds that the method will enable the alignment of services to meet the
requirements of all patients, families and other disadvantaged groups.
As many disparities in health care are the main outcome of cultural barriers, almost all
dimension for improving cultural competence recommends awareness of the diverse culture. For
instance, in the study of (Horvat, Horey, Romios & Kis-Rigo, 2014), the study meant to assess
the influences of cultural competence teaching on the performance of health professionals on
different patient-related instances. The study concluded that cultural competence is a continuous
learning process. The training showed a significant improvement in the practice of cultural
competence in the provision of care.
Conclusion
Cultural competence is not an optional skill in a healthcare setting. It has now become an
element that determines the entire qualification of a heathcare professional. Also, cultural
competence go hand in hand with emotional intelligence. These are some of the skills that every
nurse should have so that they would be able to serve the public at any part of the world. The
ultimate goal of this paper was to treat the idea of cultural competence as a skill for both
healthcare leaders and staffs. The paper has discussed this idea, and covered the idea of
emotional intelligence. Overall, anyone can develop these skills through either practicing them or
learning

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