Title : Views of nurse managers about their emotional intelligence competencies in clinical practice
Abstract:
Purpose:
To explore the views of nurse managers about their emotional intelligence competencies in clinical practice
Background:
Nurse Managers (NM) are in charge of managing the unit and directly supervising the nursing staff, coordinating processes and ensuring the quality of patient care, managing staff schedules, payroll, performance reviews, and decisions about hiring and terminating staff, among other things. Such activities necessitate high communication skills, positive relationship building, and team support from the nurse manager as team leader.
Globally health-care systems are emphasizing the importance of providing higher-quality patient care. Exploring the individual characteristics of nurse managers and how they may relate to quality patient care is a new and underutilized approach. It is suggested that emotional intelligence (EI) is essential for effective practice, particularly when it comes to providing quality patient care. Emotional intelligence is thus one of the key attributes of nurse managers to ensure quality care.
Aim:
To explore the views of nurse managers about their emotional intelligence in clinical practice
Design:
A qualitative design was used. By employing stratified purposeful sampling, two e-focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 13-unit nurse managers working in Ghanaian teaching hospitals. Data was analysed using deductive content analysis.
Findings:
Two themes emerged, namely nurse managers' challenges with emotional intelligence and nurse managers' recommendations for emotional challenges.
Conclusion:
Despite the nurse managers' voiced that they lack of familiarity with EI, several fundamental principles and challenges in implementing emotional intelligence competencies into clinical practice were reflected in their narratives. However, substantial obstacles prevented them from using EI to improve as managers. To ensure quality care, nurse managers require specific emotional intelligence qualities to persuade others’ emotions. Urgent educational programme development for enhancing emotional intelligence of nurse managers is required.
Audience Take Away Notes:
- This paper highlights the challenges of application of emotional intelligence among nurse managers and their recommendations with the concept of emotional intelligence guiding development of educational programme.
- This review found that most unit nurse managers in leadership role face challenges in relation to application of emotional intelligence which affects their personal development, patient safety outcomes and organizational success and it has also helped to address the identified challenges in developing emotional intelligence educational programme for nurse managers in leadership.
- The literature on EI among nursing leadership, and more specifically unit NMs, is lacking.
- The limited studies that have been published in the nursing literature have primarily examined how NMs degree of application of EI affects their personal development, patient and staff outcomes.
