The Integration Of Emotional Intelligence Into Healthcare

Today, the emphasis on the word leadership leads us to believe that it is unattainable by the average person. We hear phrases such as "leaders are born and not created" that make us feel that leadership is only for the few. In some instances, this could be the case, but a form of leadership that can be learned by anyone is known as emotional intelligence. Using leadership of this kind can be used in all sorts of career fields such as corporate, sales and even healthcare. This paper will further go into detail about the background and concept of emotional intelligence, how this leadership style affects the different nursing roles, how I plan on using this leadership concept in my practice and

A high degree of emotional intelligence is associated with the nursing profession as the principal issues plaguing society are health related, thus causing the health care industry to be fraught with emotional situations (Feather, 2009). This would suggest that nurses equipped emotional intelligence, the ability to recognize and monitor their feelings while duly remaining mindful of the emotions occurring in the surrounding in environment, would provide better care as they would have more regulated reactions in stressful scenarios (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). Emotional intelligence provides fundamental contributions to nursing across many roles, including that of the bedside nurse, change agent, and nurse leader. Through the four primary skills of self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship management, nurses may be more equipped in performing the functions of advocacy, planning change, and time management (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009; Marquis & Huston, 2015). Emotional intelligence not only adds to one’s ability to manage well, but is also are related transformational leadership (Kronig, 2015). Transformational nurse leaders display emotional intelligence through self-awareness and also through their ability to empower staff members and colleagues.

This paper has 3 purposes. First, to assess my emotional intelligence (EQ) and relate my EQ to my future nursing practice. Second, to compare the differences between leadership styles. Last, to provide a definition of leadership and illustrate how the provided definition of leadership will impact my future role as an advanced practice nurse practitioner (APNP). The tools used to accomplish the goals of this paper are a web based EQ assessment tool and a review of literature related to leadership and EQ.

Emotions can be defined as “organised responses,” that cross “the boundaries of many psychological subsystems, including the physiological, cognitive, motivational, and experimental systems.” Emotions will usually arise “in response to an event, either internal or external, that has a positive or negative meaning for the individual” (Salovey & Mayer, 1990, p. 189). Intelligence can be defined as “the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his environment” (Wechsler, 1944, p. 3). When these two concepts are put together, emotional intelligence is created. Emotional intelligence can be defined as “the ability to monitor one 's own and others ' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one 's thinking and actions” (Salovey & Mayer, 1990, p. 189). Health care professionals use emotional intelligence on a daily basis, when communicating with patients, when

Greco (2006), states, “The nurse leader’s empowering behaviors can be pivotal in the way nurses react to their work environment.” This statement shows how much power and influence e a true nurse leader can have on her environment. They have the task of not only caring for their nursing staff, but they are also the middle man between patient care, and physicians, while trying to create money for the hospital. My interviewed leader states that the most important trait to possess in the healthcare setting is “emotional intelligence.” I am assuming that she meant a term similar to emotional leadership. Sullivan (2012), states, “emotional intelligence involves personal competence, which includes self-awareness and self-management, and social competence, which includes self-awareness and relationship management that begins with authenticity.” One study conducted by Antonakis (2009), found that those who possess emotional intelligence have been linked to leaders. Furthermore, Antonakis (2009,) states, “Emotions help us to make effective decisions; that is certain.” Nursing is a field which needs compassionate caregivers and people. This is what sets nurses apart from other professions, our ability to care and connect with others. Sullivan (2012), states, “Nurses, with their well-honed skills as compassionate caregivers, are aptly suited to this direction in leadership that emphasizes emotions and relationships with others as a primary attribute for success.” I think others believe

There appears to be debate with regards to definitions of EI. Mayer, Salovey and Caruso (1997, as cited in Cherniss, 2010) model EI on the “…psychology of emotions, personality theory and mental abilities” (p.112) seeking to develop an original and different type of intelligence. In contrast, Boyatzis, Goleman and Sala (2004, as cited in Cherniss, 2010) characterise EI as encompassing emotional and social competencies related to workplace performance. However, Bar-On’s model of EI (1998, as cited in Cherniss, 2010) as emotional and socially competent conduct, enabling successful adaptation to the pressures and demands on one’s environment, would seem to lend itself most adaptably to health care administration.

The purpose of this manuscript is to introduce the topics of emotional intelligence and authentic leadership and how they can be applied in the advanced practice nurse role. Assessing

In order to be a successful leader, a person should know and recognize his or her strengths, weaknesses, and emotional intelligence. If they recognize these aspects, then people will be more likely to follow their leadership. This paper identifies my strengths and weaknesses I have as well as my emotional intelligence scores. In order to find out what strengths and weaknesses I have and how I can apply them as a leader in a public health profession I have taken the StrengthsFinder 2.0 Assessment and the Emotional Intelligence 2.0 test.

Brackett, & J. D. Mayer, (Eds.), (2004). Emotional intelligence: Key readings on the Mayer and

Mayer and Salovey (1993) had state that emotional intelligence is individual’s ability to monitor their own and other’s emotions and feelings which to distinguish from related concepts such as more cognitively-oriented intelligences, social skills, personality traits and a collection of ‘good attributes’ that only tangentially involve emotion. According to Salovey and Mayer (1990), type of social intelligence was the first concept that divisible from general intelligence. However, Salovey and Mayer had expanded the definition of emotional intelligence as including the capability exactly conscious, assess and represent emotions; the capability to entrance feelings and contemplatively manage emotional and intellectual growth in 1997. The following are the quite complete “four branch model” of emotional intelligence (Mayer & Salovey, 1997):

One of the studies conducted was in Malaysian public hospitals. Emotional intelligence was studied among nurses to see how it impacted caring behavior. This was done by using a cross-sectional survey and administering it to five hundred and fifty nurses and using structured equation modeling to analyze the data (Kaur 2015).

Emotional intelligence or as others call it, emotional quotient, is a relatively new and controversial topic in the world of psychology. Emotional intelligence abbreviated EI or EQ, was first theorized in 1990 by Peter Salovey a social psychologist hailing from Standford University and John Mayer a personality psychologist from Case Western University. These two researchers began by looking at intelligence quotients (IQ) and creating a hypothesis as to why some people, despite lower scores on intelligence tests held high positions in career settings, had a high rapport with many individuals from all walks of life and overall were seen to be more empathetic and understanding in nature. Salovey and Mayer proposed that IQ scores do not measure factors that may contribute to a successful, happy life, such as how a person interprets their own emotions such as anger or sadness and how one deals with these emotions. Salovey and Mayer believed if such skills existed they could be broken off into subsets and tested on their own. In turn, Salovey and Mayer created the revolution known as emotional intelligence.

What is emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence is one’s ability to know, feel and judge emotions in cooperation with a person’s thinking process for behaving in a proper way, with ultimate realization of happiness in him and in others. Like general intelligence, emotional intelligence is also developed in a person by birth. Normal development of emotion leads to healthy life, but too much variation in emotional level damages the individual’s life. You can only help others with their emotions if you know how to control your own. Emotional intelligence allows you to perceive emotions, use your emotions for the better or worse, understand emotions, and initiate actions in response to those emotions

Emotional intelligence (EI) is having the ability to recognize, perceive, control, and evaluate one’s emotions. EI is also the ability to see how one’s emotions affect others (Marquis & Huston, 2012; Mindtool, 1996-2015). In the healthcare landscape of today, effective leadership skills are critical to an organization. High EI is a skill that effective leaders possess (Sadri, 2012). When a leader has a high EI, they have a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Having the EI knowledge about themselves gives a leader the advantage to better address problems as they arise and to handle future complications in the organization (Fletcher, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of my EI assessment including strategies for developing my EI. The topic of how to work with others who do not demonstrate EI or who have different EI levels than myself will be discussed as well.

The term emotional intelligence can be dated back to the early 1980’s, where it was referred to as theory of multiple intelligences. In 1990 John Mayer and Peter Salovey introduce the revised multiple intelligence, which was emotional intelligence. In 1995, Daniel Goleman believed and published emotional intelligence could mean more than the popular IQ test. Emotional intelligence is always changing, which makes it a controversial tool that is used to measure personality traits, skills and abilities (Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health, 2016). Emotional Intelligence tests can be categorized into three different categories. The first being ability based models; this one is a self-report test and consists of a four branch model. These four branches are; understand emotions, use emotions to facilitate thought, perceive emotions, and manage