Iranian Hospital Nurses' Lived Experiences of Emotional Intelligence: A Phenomenological Study

Thirty years of emotional intelligence: A scoping review of emotional intelligence training programme among nurses

The stressful environment of any healthcare setting can be detrimental to nurses' mental and emotional health. In recent years, emotional intelligence (EI) has emerged as a vital psychological resource that positively impacts mental and emotional health and improves organizational functioning and success. This scoping review aimed to collate, synthesize and outline the research conducted on EI training programmes among nurses to assess their effectiveness in improving staff nurses' EI. Electronic databases of MEDLINE via PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, Cochrane, ProQuest, Embase and Web of Science were comprehensively searched for related studies published between 1990 and 2021 (updated in May 2022). Two investigators independently screened the abstracts of the retrieved studies against the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Out of 728 initially retrieved studies, only 7 were included in the final synthesis. The PRISMA-ScR (2018) checklist was used to report the study findings. All the studies included in the review reported a significant improvement in nurses' EI after a training programme. The results also indicate that EI interventions are an effective way to improve nurses' psychological resources (improve resilience and coping skills; reduce anxiety and stress), leadership qualities, job performance and patient experience of nursing care. As nurses are exposed to a wide range of emotions, human pain and suffering, the results of this review suggest that improving the EI skills of nurses through short training programmes is an effective way to maintain their emotional and mental well-being. This scoping review is preregistered in Prospero (CRD42020161084).

Patient Safety Culture and Spiritual Health in the Operating Room: An Iranian Exploratory Qualitative Study

The concept of patient safety and spiritual health are considered essential components of health care systems and form the main pillars of quality care in many health care organizations. This study aims to explain the culture of patient safety and spiritual health in the operating room from the perspectives of operating room physicians and nurses. This qualitative study was of qualitative conventional content analysis type using purposive sampling. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. Graneheim and Landman (2004) methods were used to analyze the data. To analyze the data of this research, 5 main themes including continuous and dynamic training and upgrading of safety skills, attention to spirituality, conscientiousness and work commitment, effective communication and teamwork, equipping human and logistical resources based on the principle of care, accurate recognition of instructions and error control were obtained. According to the findings, a proper understanding of patient safety culture can improve patient safety culture and increase the quality of services provided to patients.

Operating room nurses' experience about patient cares for laparotomy surgeries: A phenomenological study

Introduction:

The primary purpose of the present study was to explain the lived experiences of operating room nurses in the field of patient care undergoing laparotomy surgeries.

Methods:

The analytical phenomenological method was used. Ten operating room nurses employed in the operating rooms were selected using purposeful sampling. In-depth and semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. Data analysis was also applied using van Manen’s six-step test.

Results:

In this study, 749 initial codes were extracted, classified into three main themes and six sub-themes following the elimination of similar codes. The main themes included a positive view of patient care, preservation of the physical safety of patients, and consideration of patient vulnerability in the operating room. Moreover, responsibility, holistic care, readiness standards of the surgical environment, physical care provision, medical team malpractice, and lack of care context were considered as sub-themes.

Conclusion:

The operating room nurses’ experiences of patient care in operating rooms included a positive view of patient care, preservation of the patient’s physical safety, and consideration of patient vulnerability in the operating room.

Lived experiences of frontline healthcare providers offering maternal and newborn services amidst the novel corona virus disease 19 pandemic in Uganda: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many health systems in low resource settings to their knees. The pandemic has had crippling effects on the already strained health systems in provision of maternal and newborn healthcare. With the travel restrictions, social distancing associated with the containment of theCOVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers could be faced with challenges of accessing their work stations, and risked burnout as they offered maternal and newborn services. This study sought to understand the experiences and perceptions of healthcare providers at the frontline during the first phase of the lockdown as they offered maternal and newborn health care services in both public and private health facilities in Uganda with the aim of streamlining patient care in face of the current COVID-19 pandemic and in future disasters.

METHODS

Between June 2020 and December 2020, 25 in-depth interviews were conducted among healthcare providers of different cadres in eight Public, Private-Not-for Profit and Private Health facilities in Kampala, Uganda. The interview guide primarily explored the lived experiences of healthcare providers as they offered maternal and newborn healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic. All of the in depth interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Themes and subthemes were identified using both inductive thematic and phenomenological approaches.

RESULTS

The content analysis of the in depth interviews revealed that the facilitators of maternal and newborn care service delivery among the healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic included; salary bonuses, the passion to serve their patients, availability of accommodation during the pandemic, transportation to and from the health facilities by the health facilities, teamwork, fear of losing their jobs and fear of litigation if something went wrong with the mothers or their babies. The barriers to their service delivery included; lack of transport means to access their work stations, fear of contracting COVID-19 and transmitting it to their family members, salary cuts, loss of jobs especially in the private health facilities, closure of the non-essential services to combat high patient numbers, inadequate supply of Personal Protective equipment (PPE), being put in isolation or quarantine for two weeks which meant no earning, brutality from the security personnel during curfew hours and burnout from long hours of work and high patient turnovers.

CONCLUSION

The COVID-19 Pandemic has led to a decline in quality of maternal and newborn service delivery by the healthcare providers as evidenced by shorter consultation time and failure to keep appointments to attend to patients. Challenges with transport, fears of losing jobs and fear of contracting COVID-19 with the limited access to personal protective equipment affected majority of the participants. The healthcare providers in Uganda despite the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic are driven by the inherent passion to serve their patients. Availability of accommodation and transport at the health facilities, provision of PPE, bonuses and inter professional teamwork are critical motivators that needed to be tapped to drive teams during the current and future pandemics.

The lived experience of HIV-infected patients in the face of a positive diagnosis of the disease: a phenomenological study

Background

AIDS as a human crisis may lead to devastating psychological trauma and stress for patients. Therefore, it is necessary to study different aspects of their lives for better support and care. Accordingly, this study aimed to explain the lived experience of HIV-infected patients in the face of a positive diagnosis of the disease.

Methods

This qualitative study is a descriptive phenomenological study. Sampling was done purposefully and participants were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data collection was conducted, using semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was performed using Colaizzi’s method.

Results

12 AIDS patients participated in this study. As a result of data analysis, 5 main themes and 12 sub-themes were identified, which include: emotional shock (loathing, motivation of social isolation), the fear of the consequences (fear of the death, fear of loneliness, fear of disgrace), the feeling of the guilt (feeling of regret, feeling guilty, feeling of conscience-stricken), the discouragement (suicidal ideation, disappointment), and the escape from reality (denial, trying to hide).

Conclusion

The results of this study showed that patients will experience unpleasant phenomenon in the face of the positive diagnosis of the disease and will be subjected to severe psychological pressures that require attention and support of medical and laboratory centers.

Patients will experience severe psychological stress in the face of a positive diagnosis of HIV.

Patients who are diagnosed with HIV are prone to make a blunder and dreadful decisions.

AIDS patients need emotional and informational support when they receive a positive diagnosis.

As a piece of bad news, presenting the positive diagnosis of HIV required the psychic preparation of the patient

Nurses' perceptions of emotional intelligence in the clinical setting: A qualitative systematic review

AIM

The aim of the study is to explore available literature on nurses'/midwives' perceptions of emotional intelligence in the clinical setting.

BACKGROUND

Emotional intelligence is a crucial skill in nursing practice but little is known about nurses' perceptions of it.

EVALUATION

Eight electronic databases (CINAHL, Cochrane, Embase, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) were searched until November 2020. Quality appraisal was performed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program Checklist. Data analysis was conducted using Sandelowski and Barroso's two-step approach of meta-summary and meta-synthesis.

KEY ISSUES

Five themes emerged from the 17 included studies: (1) understanding emotional intelligence in clinical nursing, (2) nurses' utilization of emotional intelligence, (3) benefits of being an emotionally intelligent nurse, (4) barriers to developing emotional intelligence and (5) recommendations to enhance emotional intelligence.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses expressed interest in enhancing their emotional intelligence, and they identified barriers and provided corresponding recommendations to support their endeavours. Future studies should be geographically distributed and include nurses from all sectors of the profession to amass a holistic and comprehensive conceptual understanding of emotional intelligence.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Policy makers and nursing educators should tactically and successfully integrate emotional intelligence training into the nursing profession and curricula.

Factors playing a role in the development of emotional labor behavior of clinical nurses

PURPOSE

This study aimed to investigate spirituality, sociodemographic features, and occupational features as predictors of nurses' emotional labor.

DESIGN AND METHODS

The study is descriptive cross-sectional and correlational research.

FINDINGS

The results demonstrated that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between the nurses' spirituality and the subdimension of intimate behavior (r = .545) (P < .05). Regarding the nurses' in-depth behaviors, the study found that spirituality (β = .550) and the number of patients that the nurses were responsible for (β = -.154) were statistically significant predictors (P < .05). The subdimensions of superficial behavior, spirituality (β = .498), and rechoosing the profession (β = -.142) were statistically significant predictors as well (P < .05).

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

For the development of emotional labor in clinical nurses, administrators should be sensitive to nurses' spiritual values.