Introduction
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is an important concept that is beneficial for people in their private and professional domains. Individuals should master EQ competencies and skills to cooperate and interact with others. As for the professional sphere, EQ is more significant for those people who frequently and directly work with customers, patients, and other persons. This description perfectly refers to every healthcare facility where the quality of interpersonal interaction can impact patient health and lives. That is why the current assignment focuses on the University Hospital, which is located in Michigan and offers its services to thousands of patients every year. In this facility, numerous medical professionals work and cooperate with one another. Nurses should do their best to develop their EQ scores because these individuals are a link between doctors and patients.
Conceptual Framework
The paper relies on the idea that EQ is a comprehensive phenomenon consisting of four specific areas. They are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, and each of them is further divided into smaller competencies. Individuals should master and succeed in them to reach high EQ scores. That is why the analysis of EQ within a particular organization should be performed by considering how and whether the selected group of people incorporates these competencies into professional performance. On the one hand, this task will be performed by talking to a few nurses from the selected healthcare facility to work with primary evidence and understand how these individuals assess EQ within their organization. On the other hand, the paper will present information from scholarly sources to clarify whether nursesâ responses have some scientific background behind them. This comprehensive approach is expected to help reach credible and reliable outcomes that will be meaningful for society.
EQ among University Hospital Nurses
Self-Awareness
Nurses should invest in developing their self-awareness because this competence allows them to understand themselves and their emotions better. According to Bradberry and Greaves (2009), this ability denotes that a person should understand when, why, and what feelings and emotions emerge in particular situations. The nurses stipulate that they require emotional self-awareness, accurate self-assessment, and self-confidence to succeed in the workplace. The selected participants indicate that sufficient attention is devoted to these skills during education and training. For example, in the classroom, they learned to understand the impact of emotions on their actions, welcome constructive criticism, and be self-confident to defend their opinions. These nurses reported that those healthcare professionals who have mastered all these skills have high EQ scores and are role models for other employees who want to improve their emotional coping abilities.
Scholars additionally demonstrate that self-awareness is significant for nurses because if it is underdeveloped, negative outcomes can emerge. In particular, Soto-Rubio et al. (2020) indicate that healthcare professionals should master this skill and relevant competencies because their absence can lead to job dissatisfaction, burnout, and health issues. When nurses do not understand their emotions, cannot withstand criticism, or lack self-confidence, they can be subject to psychosomatic problems. For example, they include chronic pain, fatigue, and other harmful phenomena (Soto-Rubio et al., 2020). In other words, the presence of these complaints can be a sign indicating that individuals have problems with their self-awareness. Since the nurses did not state that such problems were widespread within the organization, it is possible to conclude that the given EQ competence is at a decent level in University Hospital.
Self-Management
Self-management is the second important competence of EQ, which refers to a personâs ability to control their emotions, actions, and thoughts. According to Stein (2018), this skill is of significance for entrepreneurs because they should stay calm to analyze situations and make correct decisions. This competency comprises a few narrower issues, including self-control, transparency, adaptability, achievement, initiative, and optimism. The University Hospital nurses mention that they are encouraged to master these skills and incorporate them into their professional practice. For example, self-control is necessary because challenging situations with patients, families, and colleagues are frequent, and nurses should control their emotions to avoid conflicts. As for initiative and optimism, these competencies allow nurses to identify problems, develop appropriate solutions, implement them, and believe in success. These facts ensure that nurses contribute to making the entire healthcare industry better and more efficient.
Even though it is challenging to overestimate the importance of self-management and its competencies, University Hospital nurses state that this domain brings a few inefficiencies in the medical organization. In particular, a few nurses lack self-control when they meet verbal aggression or rudeness. Other nurses can be pessimistic or unwilling to offer and implement initiatives to bring positive outcomes. Since these issues are present within the organization, there are conflicts among various stakeholders, which decreases the quality of care delivery. In turn, conflicts result in the fact that nurses do not want to develop and introduce any initiatives to solve the existing problems. This description demonstrates that these issues accumulate, which can contribute to the spread of stress among nurses. If this occurs, the healthcare quality will significantly worsen, which will negatively impact patients.
The investigation of evidence from a scientific and peer-reviewed article demonstrates that the selected organization indeed suffers from poor self-management skills among nurses. Mazzella Ebstein et al. (2019) stipulate that occupational stress is typical when employees do not have high EQ scores. Since various issues have a continuous impact on nurses, they experience stress that further results in conflicts and worsened relationships with colleagues, patients, and their families. In addition to that, Mazzella Ebstein et al. (2019) mention that poor self-management leads to ineffective problem-solving skills. In this case, nurses only focus on the negative aspects of the problem and fail to allocate time and effort to find a feasible solution. That is why the analysis of scholarly evidence has demonstrated that University Hospital nurses have insufficient self-management, which harmfully impacts the entire organization.
Social Awareness
This competence is different from the first two because it focuses on how people refer to the emotions of others. As Bradberry and Greaves (2009) state, this competence refers to individualsâ ability to predict, understand, and respect the feelings, emotions, and thoughts of other people. This domain further consists of empathy, organizational awareness, and service. These specific competencies are important in the healthcare sphere because they ensure that nurses are ready to perform their duties and help others. In particular, healthcare professionals are expected to be emphatic, which denotes that they should respect the emotions of others even if they are different from their own ones. Organizational awareness implies that nurses should know and share the corporate values, mission, and goals, which will make these professionals achieve them. Finally, service is a central component of the nursing profession, and it is good that EQ has a specific skill devoted to this phenomenon.
According to the answers of the University Hospital nurses, they have decent scores within the social awareness domain. Many specific examples prove this statement, and it is reasonable to focus on some of them. It is impossible to mention that nurses are indifferent or lack empathy in the organization. Every healthcare worker is ready to help patients and colleagues solve an issue irrespective of their personal relationships. Simultaneously, all these nurses perfectly understand organizational values and share them since every medical professional does their best to provide patients with high-quality care and improve their health conditions. Service competence is a central component of the entire nursing profession. That is why no one can refute that nurses perfectly cope with this task because they devote their lives to serving others. Thus, this information clearly proves that the selected group effectively incorporates social awareness competence into their activities.
It is additionally reasonable to analyze what researchers state regarding the place of social awareness in the nursing profession. According to White and Grason (2019), individuals should develop their social awareness skills to understand others and cooperate with them effectively. In particular, nurses should enhance their empathy and service to recognize the emotions and feelings of patients, families, and colleagues (White & Grason, 2019). If a nurse masters these skills, they will know when it is better to cooperate with others and when the situation is inappropriate. In addition to that, sophisticated social awareness ensures that a person can decipher othersâ emotional needs and satisfy them. In the healthcare industry, this ability is important because nurses often need to report challenging information to patients and their families and comfort them. In other words, it is good that University Hospital nurses succeed in this domain since this fact makes care better and more effective.
Relationship Management
The fourth domain of EQ refers to relationship management, which is important for interpersonal communication and collaboration. According to Bradberry and Greaves (2009), this competence refers to peopleâs ability to rely on self-awareness and social awareness skills to establish and maintain relationships with other individuals. This domain is comprehensive and includes a few specific skills that significantly impact how people interact with others. In particular, these skills include inspiration, influence, developing others, change catalyst, conflict management, and teamwork. Each of these elements is important for a member of any group. This EQ sphere indicates that individuals should be able to inspire and influence others in specific situations. In addition to that, relationship management implies that a person can help others develop their personal and professional skills, introduce positive changes, and manage interpersonal conflicts in the workplace. According to Stein (2018), all these skills are especially significant for leaders and entrepreneurs. Since nurses should have leadership qualities to succeed professionally, it is not surprising that relationship management is important for the selected group.
The nurses from the University Hospital presented controversial assessments of their performance within the chosen domain. On the one hand, these individuals offered positive evaluations of this competence. These statements mainly referred to teamwork and conflict management since many nurses were valuable members of the team and did their best to maintain and defend a productive environment in the workplace. On the other hand, some nurses admitted their weaknesses within this competence. These inefficiencies referred to the fact that many nurses had difficulties inspiring, influencing, and developing others. Even though these medical professionals carefully and effectively performed their tasks, insufficient relationship management skills did not allow them to bring further improvement to the organization. These issues were typical among young and inexperienced nurses who did not have the required expertise to succeed in the profession.
Various researchers explain that relationship management is critical for nurses and depends on effective communication. Raeissi et al. (2022) stipulate that when healthcare professionals have enhanced communication skills, they can establish and maintain better and more productive relationships with other stakeholders. That is why various healthcare institutions tend to organize training and education sessions to help students and employees improve their skills (Raeissi et al., 2022). Since the University Hospital nurses reported some issues regarding relationship management, it is possible to suggest that these individuals had poor communication competencies. That is why the selected organization is expected to develop and implement appropriate interventions to ensure that its nurses have good communication skills that will contribute to their better EQ.
Summarizing the Analysis
The presented information demonstrates a comprehensive assessment of EQ among University Hospital nurses. It is possible to suggest that the selected group had both strengths and weaknesses in how they approached their and othersâ emotions. That is why it is not rational to offer a unanimous conclusion regarding the level of EQ among the selected nurses. It is still possible to offer some significant conclusions that deserve attention. The evidence above has demonstrated that the selected individuals had high scores within the self-awareness and social awareness domains. This information demonstrates that the nurses perfectly understand their and othersâ emotions. These individuals can recognize what they feel and respect what others feel, which is the basis of EQ. However, the nurses reported inefficiencies regarding the self-management and relationship management spheres, and scholarly evidence proved that the issues existed in the organization. This information demonstrates that the selected group had difficulties turning their EQ knowledge into EQ actions. Consequently, the organization should create and implement specific interventions to address the situation and bring improvement.
Implication of Research
The current research is important and valuable to the University Hospital and society. Firstly, the findings provide the organization with an understanding of its employeesâ EQ. The management can now see the necessity to address the situation and develop EQ among nurses to deliver high-quality care and improve patient health outcomes. Secondly, scholars, experts, and human resource professionals can benefit from the paper because it reveals that there can be a gap between EQ knowledge and actions. If any of these areas are underdeveloped, a person cannot be said to have decent EQ competence. In other words, the given research demonstrates that it is necessary to draw more rigorous attention to analyzing EQ skills.
Conclusion
EQ is a comprehensive phenomenon that determines how people can understand, manage, and control the emotions of themselves and others. This competence is significant for all individuals, and nurses are no exception. That is why the paper analyzed EQ among University Hospital nurses. That analysis of the medical professionalsâ responses and scientific literature has demonstrated that these stakeholders had EQ strengths and weaknesses. This finding makes it impossible to offer a unanimous assessment of EQ within the selected group. However, it is known for sure that the selected organization should implement specific interventions to improve nursesâ emotional management skills and competencies.
References
Bradberry, T., & Greaves, J. (2009). Emotional Intelligence 2.0. TalentSmart.
Mazzella Ebstein, A. M., Sanzero Eller, L., Tan, K. S., Cherniss, C., Ruggiero, J. S., & Cimiotti, J. P. (2019). The relationships between coping, occupational stress, and emotional intelligence in newly hired oncology nurses. PsychoâOncology, 28(2), 278-283. Web.
Raeissi, P., Zandian, H., Mirzarahimy, T., Delavari, S., Moghadam, T. Z., & Rahimi, G. (2022). Relationship between communication skills and emotional intelligence among nurses. Nursing Management, 29(4), 1-5. Web.
Soto-Rubio, A., GimĂ©nez-Espert, M. D. C., & Prado-GascĂł, V. (2020). Effect of emotional intelligence and psychosocial risks on burnout, job satisfaction, and nursesâ health during the covid-19 pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(21), 1-14. Web.
Stein, S. (2018). The EQ leader: Instilling passion, creating shared goals, and building meaningful organizations through emotional intelligence. Wiley and Sons.
White, D. E., & Grason, S. (2019). The importance of emotional intelligence in nursing care. Journal of Comprehensive Nursing Research and Care, 4(152), 1-3. Web.