A longitudinal study of emotional intelligence in graduate nurse anesthesia students

Emotional intelligence of intensive care nurses in a tertiary hospital

Emotional intelligence is defined as "the ability to perceive, assimilate, understand and regulate one's own emotions and those of others, promoting emotional and intellectual growth." The published evidence on the emotional intelligence of nursing staff in charge of a critical area patient in a tertiary hospital is scarce.

OBJECTIVE

To analyse the emotional intelligence of nursing staff in the critical patient area.

METHODOLOGY

A descriptive, cross-sectional, single-centre study carried out in nursing staff of the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of a tertiary hospital in Catalonia (September 2016). Variables studied: age, gender, work experience in ICU (years worked), and median score (range) of the dimensions of the Meta Mood Trait Scale (TMMS-24) with three dimensions: 1) Emotional attention (I am able to feel and express my feelings adequately); 2) Clarity of feelings (I understand my emotional states well); 3) Emotional repair (I am able to regulate emotional states correctly). A descriptive analysis was undertaken.

RESULTS

All active nursing staff (n = 103) were asked to participate in the study: 92 (89%) accepted and completed the questionnaire (75 (82%) women, 17 (18%) men); 51 (55%) were aged between 21 to 30 years-old, and had more than 6 years of working experience in ICU. The median scores (range) of the different dimensions of the TMMS-24 questionnaire by gender (women/men) were respectively: 1) Emotional attention: 24 (12-37) [Adequate: 25 to 35]; 23 (18-31) [Adequate: 22 to 32]; 2) Clarity of feelings: 29 (15-40) [Adequate: 24-34]; 27 (18-34) [Adequate: 26-35]; 3) Emotional repair: 28 (13-40) [Adequate: 24-34]; 29 (18-39) [Adequate: 24-35].

CONCLUSIONS

The emotional intelligence of the nursing staff was adequate in the dimensions of clarity of feelings and emotional repair. However, it was not adequate in the dimension of emotional attention, therefore it is an area to improve.

Emotional intelligence of intensive care nurses in a tertiary hospital

Emotional intelligence is defined as «the ability to perceive, assimilate, understand and regulate one's own emotions and those of others, promoting emotional and intellectual growth». The published evidence on the emotional intelligence of nursing staff in charge of a critical area patient in a tertiary hospital is scarce.

OBJECTIVE

To analyse the emotional intelligence of nursing staff in the critical patient area.

METHODOLOGY

A descriptive, cross-sectional, single-centre study carried out in nursing staff of the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of a tertiary hospital in Catalonia (September 2016). Variables studied: age, gender, work experience in ICU (years worked), and median score (range) of the dimensions of the Meta Mood Trait Scale (TMMS-24) with three dimensions: 1) Emotional attention (I am able to feel and express my feelings adequately); 2) Clarity of feelings (I understand my emotional states well); 3) Emotional repair (I am able to regulate emotional states correctly). A descriptive analysis was undertaken.

RESULTS

All active nursing staff (n=103) were asked to participate in the study: 92 (89%) accepted and completed the questionnaire (75 (82%) women, 17 (18%) men); 51 (55%) were aged between 21 to 30 years-old, and had more than 6 years of working experience in ICU. The median scores (range) of the different dimensions of the TMMS-24 questionnaire by gender (women/men) were respectively: 1) Emotional attention: 24 (12-37) [adequate: 25 to 35]; 23 (18-31) [adequate: 22 to 32]; 2) Clarity of feelings: 29 (15-40) [adequate: 24-34]; 27 (18-34) [adequate: 26-35]; 3) Emotional repair: 28 (13-40) [adequate: 24-34]; 29 (18-39) [adequate: 24-35].

CONCLUSIONS

The emotional intelligence of the nursing staff was adequate in the dimensions of clarity of feelings and emotional repair. However, it was not adequate in the dimension of emotional attention, therefore it is an area to improve.

The relationship between critical thinking and emotional intelligence in nursing students: A longitudinal study

BACKGROUND

Emotional Intelligence and critical thinking are regarded as important traits that nurses have which may influence the quality of their work including clinical decision-making and reasoning ability and adoption of evidence-based practice and practice-based knowledge.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study is to investigate nursing students' critical thinking dispositions and emotional intelligence as an essential skill, over the course of the undergraduate nursing program.

DESIGN

A longitudinal design.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

The research study was conducted as a longitudinal design. The target group of this study consists of 182 students studying at the faculty of nursing. Asymmetrical cluster sampling method has been applied to select the sample group and all students in their first academic year were included in the study.

METHOD

Information Form, California Critical Thinking Disposition Scale and Emotional Intelligence Assessment Scale were used in order to collect data. The data was analyzed by using frequency, standard deviation, Kruskal Wallis and Bonferroni test.

RESULTS

There was no relationship between sub-dimensions of emotional intelligence respectively; awareness of emotions, empathy, social skills in the first academic year and critical thinking disposition and the end of academic year. A moderate correlation was found in the positive direction between the self-motivation at the beginning of the academic year and critical thinking disposition at the end of the final academic year.

CONCLUSION

It is recommended that the nursing scholarship investigates the current issues on the subjects of emotional intelligence and critical thinking in detail, discuss different aspects of the subjects and debate over the criticisms. Briefly, the discussion should go beyond the scope of nursing and include different aspects.