Emotional Intelligence as One of the Personality Traits of Nurses

The term emotional intelligence began to be used relatively recently, but its roots go back as far as 1920. They are based on Thorndike's concept of social intelligence, which, according to the author, is the ability to act wisely and behave appropriately in interpersonal relationships. More recent knowledge of emotional intelligence appears in Gardner's theory, which distinguishes intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence. According to the author mentioned, the prefix intra represents a person's ability to understand their own emotions. It means that an individual is able to define their feelings, explain how they feel, and control their feelings and emotions. In contrast, the prefix inter presents emotional intelligence within interpersonal relations and therefore the ability of a person to detect, understand and comprehend the emotions of others (Výrost, Slaměník, 2008).

Emotional intelligence became popular mainly due to Daniel Goleman's bestseller titled Emotional Intelligence (1997), in which the author states that emotional intelligence includes vigour, enthusiasm, self-regulation and the ability to motivate oneself.

According to Wood and Tolley (2003, pp. 7, 8), emotional intelligence is a set of abilities that include:

  • self-control – the ability to manage and regulate one's emotional state;
  • self-awareness – knowing oneself, one's emotions, and what one's emotions communicate;
  • motivation – the ability to use emotional energy to achieve one's goals;
  • empathy – the ability to recognize and read other people's emotions;
  • social skills – building and maintaining social relationships and influencing others.

Segal and Smith (2014) defined emotional intelligence as the ability to recognize, use, understand and regulate one's emotions with positive outcomes, in order to reduce stress, improve communication, empathize with the feelings of others, handle problems more easily and eliminate conflicts. Emotional intelligence determines many different aspects of our daily life, such as communication with other people, our behaviour, handling different situations, expression and how we initiate and maintain contacts. According to the mentioned authors, if an individual scores highly in emotional intelligence, they are able to recognize and regulate their own emotions as well as the emotional states of others, and can work with people in a way that non-coercively and smoothly brings them into the matter at hand. Knowledge of our feelings helps us behave toward people better, create and nurture positive relationships, achieve success at work and in personal life, and live a more fulfilling life.

According to Wilding (2010), an emotionally intelligent person must be able to:

  • distinguish emotions – that is, correctly identify one's own emotions as well as the emotions of other people;
  • use emotions – our behaviour and manner are determined by how we feel. Feelings therefore influence our readiness to respond and give us the possibility to find the right solutions to everyday situations.
  • understand emotions – if a person correctly understands emotions, they are better able to interpret events around them;
  • manage emotions – emotions need to be intelligently integrated into our evaluations and solutions to everyday problems. It is therefore necessary to be open to emotions and be able to choose such an approach that takes the wisdom of feelings into account (Wilding, 2010).

It is necessary to note that we do not find direct correlations between intelligence and emotional intelligence. It means that a person who reaches a high level of general intelligence does not necessarily score highly in emotional intelligence. Quite often it happens that people with high IQ cannot get along with others, cannot understand others, are not able to influence people around them, cannot assert themselves despite being very high in general intelligence. This is because their level of emotional intelligence is very low. It is emotions that leave their mark on our behaviour and experience; through emotions we can truly engage with social life (Schulze, Roberts, 2007). A person's level of emotional intelligence is a better predictor of job performance than IQ. Hunter and Hunter estimated that in the best case, IQ represents about 25% of success, while emotional intelligence makes up 75% (Bar-On, 1997).

The spectrum of emotional intelligence includes soft skills such as the ability to work in a team, communication and integrative ability, independence, willingness to take responsibility, and motivation (Goleman, 2011). All these attributes are part of employees' work performance, especially in helping professions such as physicians, nurses, social workers, psychotherapists, or teachers. For the purpose of this contribution, we focus on the nursing profession.

The central focus of nursing care is the person as a whole biopsychosocial being, located in a certain environment and in a certain health condition. Nurses cooperate in the management, planning, delivery, coordination and evaluation of nursing care with other healthcare workers of the relevant field. In providing nursing care, collaboration between nurses in various applied nursing specialties is also important, both at national and international levels (Koncepcia odboru ošetrovateľstva, 2006). Within the nurse's competencies, the application of personality requirements, communication skills, assertiveness and empathy is essential. The ability of healthcare workers to establish a relationship with patients, manage their own emotions and focus on the patient is necessary for providing high-quality healthcare (Audrey, 2010).

In healthcare, emotional intelligence should be viewed from two perspectives. First, it is necessary to perceive and understand the patient's emotions. The second perspective focuses on the emotions of healthcare workers so that they can use these perceptions to achieve the goal of patient care, and thus handle complex everyday situations in a way that leads to quality patient care. Today, patient care includes not only quality medical care, but also care that focuses on respecting the patient's goals, preferences and possibilities while honoring their emotional, social and spiritual needs. Patient care is a complex process that cannot rely only on solving somatic problems, but must also address patients' psychological and spiritual needs (Freshwater, Stickley, 2009).

Emotional intelligence is defined differently by various authors, but what matters is that the core of all emotional intelligence models consists of intrapersonal and interpersonal components (Birknerová, Vávrová and colleagues, 2013). Several models of emotional intelligence have been used to help nurses in performing their work, so that they are able to handle both their own emotions and the emotions of patients and other people they come into contact with in their profession. The basis of all models shares a common core, which includes key concepts such as self-knowledge, self-regulation, social awareness and relationship management (Freshwater, Stickley, 2009).

All the emotional competencies mentioned above allow nurses to respond effectively to circumstances they face every day while carrying out nursing interventions. Within the structure of nursing care provision, nurses also occupy managerial positions. Healthcare managers must be able to handle their own emotions and likewise be able to bring under control the emotions of the people they manage. Kentoš and Birknerová (2011) state that emotional intelligence in managers and all managerial staff is characterized by knowledge of one's own feelings, managing them, the ability to motivate oneself as well as others, the ability to empathize with others' feelings, and effectively managing interpersonal relationships. According to Pletzer (2009), managers should pay attention to developing their emotional intelligence, as it helps them achieve better performance and derive greater job satisfaction. The author also warns that it is not enough for a manager to know only their own feelings, because this could lead to a deficit in empathy. It is therefore necessary to realize that emotional intelligence is very closely linked to a person's readiness to attune to situations arising in interpersonal relationships, and to the ability to cope with them.

It should also not be forgotten that emotional intelligence needs to be supported and refined. Increasing emotional intelligence helps healthcare workers cope with the emotional demands of their work environment, which can be stressful and draining and can therefore lead to burnout. Emotional intelligence provides a framework for strengthening collaboration, positive behaviour in conflict areas, and helps create and maintain healthy workplace relationships (Codier, Kooker, Shoultz, 2010). Emotional intelligence should be increased already during students' preparation for nursing practice. It is necessary to focus on developing not only critical thinking, but also integrating emotional intelligence into clinical practice. Some authors have suggested that emotional intelligence should be included in nursing curricula. Some studies indicate that healthcare workers with higher emotional intelligence demonstrate strong self-awareness and high levels of interpersonal skills; they are empathetic and adaptable, and are more likely to establish relationships with patients more easily and thereby meet their psychological needs. Such employees can contribute to higher job performance (Routson, 2010).

Emotional intelligence is considered a key qualification on the labour market and, in hiring staff, it is one of the decisive criteria alongside the required professional knowledge and skills. Its application in nursing work is irreplaceable in the implementation of nursing interventions, at the level of interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships, and in management itself. We can conclude that support and development of emotional intelligence is one of the tools aimed at improving the quality of healthcare and strengthening the social status of the nurse.

Authors: PhDr. Valéria Parová, PhD. Univerzita Pavla Jozefa Šafárika, Lekárska fakulta, Ústav ošetrovateľstva doc. PhDr. Lucia Dimunová, PhD. Univerzita Pavla Jozefa Šafárika, Lekárska fakulta, Ústav ošetrovateľstva Bibliographic References

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