The relationship between nurses’ emotional intelligence and professional stress experience at work
Date Issued | Volume | Issue | Start Page | End Page |
---|---|---|---|---|
2024-04-05 | 60 | Suppl. 1 | 220 | 220 |
Background. Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, use, and manage your emotions. Research, analysing the stress experienced by nurses at work, shows that there is a strong relationship between a nurse’s emotional intelligence and the stress experienced at work. High emotional intelligence enables people to control and manage stressful situations due to their ability to think logically and rationally and to view situations more tolerantly. Aim. To assess the relationship between nurses’ emotional intelligence and professional stress experience at work. Methods. The quantitative, cross-sectional study was provided in one of the Lithuanian hospitals. In total 131 nurses were enrolled in this study: 62 from the Surgical Department and 69 from the Therapeutic Department. The questionnaires N.S. Shuttes ‘The Assessing Emotions Scale’ and J. G. Anderson, P. Grey– Toft ‘The Nursing Stress Scale’ were used in this study. A statistically significant difference in characteristics between study groups is considered when p < 0.05. Results. Most nurses working in surgery and therapy departments have high emotional intelligence and can manage their emotions in different situations. Nurses with the shortest work experience (1–5 years) and younger age (20–35 years) exhibited the highest emotional intelligence scores (120.0 ± 14.8 and 117.5 ± 15.1 respectively). Most of the surgery and therapy department nurses experienced moderate stress levels at work. Nurses with more years of work experience (16–25 years) in their current unit and older age nurses (51+ years) experienced higher levels of stress at work, with scores of 51.1 ± 19.7 and 56.1 ± 18.6, respectively. Nurses’ stress at work due to patient deaths and dying; concerns about the patient’s future treatment; conflicts with doctors and nurses; high workload; and inadequate professional training were associated with lower emotional intelligence. Nurses’ stress at work due to lack of support was associated with a lower perception of their own emotions. It also affected their control of both their own and others’ emotions, resulting in lower overall emotional intelligence among nurses. Conclusions. Nurses working in surgical and therapeutic wards have high emotional intelligence and experience moderate levels of stress at work. Nurses’ stress at work is associated with lower emotional intelligence.