Use of Emotional Intelligence in Nursing Education

Emotional Intelligence In Nursing Education

What Is Emotional intelligence,Nursing Concepts About Emotional Intelligence, Nursing Concepts About Emotional Intelligence,Impact of Emotional Intelligence In Nursing Education.

What Is Emotional intelligence

    Emotional intelligence (El) is the ability to perceive and understand one's own and others' emotions and use this information to guide one's thoughts and actions ( Salovey & Mayer, 1990).

Implementation of Emotional Intelligence In Nursing Education

    El is integral to all interaction nurses have with patients and families. In order to provide compassionate and quality care, nurses need to have the skills to understand, interpret, manage, and respond to not only their own emotions, but to emotions of patients and families. Research indicates that El skills and knowledge can be increased with training (Chang, 2007). Thus, information about El needs to be well integrated into every aspect of nursing education; it should not be an addendum, a learning module, or a didactic class. 

    Freshwater and Stickley (2004) described transformatory learning as an effective teaching strategy to increase El skills in part because this approach actively involves learners in critical reflection and discussion to question assumptions. This model involves reflective learning experiences such as journal writing, which enhances self-awareness, interpersonal understanding: critical analysis; cognitive learning; and clinical reasoning skills. 

    The process of journal writing allows students to reflect on attitudes and feelings, and expand the cognitive and affective dimension of learning. Other examples of this type of learning include using the arts like drama, art, poetry, and music to express nursing students' experiences. These expressive modalities demonstrate the notion of caring in a creative way.

    The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is calling for changes in how nurses are educated. One of the recommendations includes using active learning strategies such as case studies. Case studies are more effective than traditional lectures because they show nursing students the ways of using nursing science and knowledge to solve patient problems. The clinical setting provides a perfect opportunity for students to present case studies in post conference discussions following clinical experiences. This format gives faculty an opportunity to not only link theory and practice but also enhances El skills of students.

    Role modeling and mentoring by faculty are imperative to foster development and growth of nurses' El skills. Faculty must possess these El skills themselves in order to develop their students' El skills. Enhancing El skills among nurses enables them to create a caring environment and implement effective coping strategies when faced with stressful situations (Evans & Allen, 2002)

    Hospitals are beginning to implement health and well-being programs for staff in an attempt to help employees improve and maintain their health and overall well-being One New York hospital is engaging employees in their own well-being and supporting them in achieving individual health goals . This hospital is offering innovative, integrated, and easily accessible programs to faster employee health and well-being such as meditation classes, relaxation techniques, cooking tips, blood pressure screening, and walking clubs. The goal is to create a culture of caring, health, and well-being in the workplace. This approach might work well in other settings as well.

 Nursing Concepts About Emotional Intelligence 

    Three main theories regarding El are addressed in the literature: the ability model, the trait model, and the mixed model. The ability model was developed by Salovey and Mayer, who introduced the term "El" into mainstream American psychology in their landmark article "Emotional intelligence." This model identified four factors of El: perceiving emotion, reasoning with emotion, understanding emotion, and managing emotion. In addition, Salovey and Mayer developed the Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) to measure EL

    The trait model is defined as a constellation of self-perceptions located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies ( Petrides , Pita, & Kokkinaki , 2007 ). This model is the self-perceived ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups.

    The mixed model was introduced by Goleman (1995) in his book, Emotional Intelligence Why It Can Matter More Than IQ Goleman argued that the current definition of human intelligence was far too narrow and showed that people with high IQs were not necessarily successful. Goleman proposed that emotional factors such as self-awareness, self-discipline, and empathy contributed to a different way of being smart. He indicated that the previous factors are not fixed at birth; they are shaped by childhood experiences and can be nurtured and shaped throughout adulthood with immediate benefits to health, relationships, and work.

    According to Goleman , El consists of five attributes: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, social awareness, and relationship management. The first attribute. Self-awareness is the ability to have insight into one's emotions, strengths, and weaknesses and to see how one's feelings affect others. Self-regulation, the second attribute, involves controlling one's impulses and not making judgments until enough information is gathered. People with a high degree of self-regulation are more capable of facing change. 

    The third attribute, motivation, can be described as passion, a quest for challenges, a desire to learn, and pride in one's work. People who are motivated to actively search for solutions to problems and pursue goals with energy and commitment. Highly motivated people consistently raise performance expectations for themselves, their team, and their organization. Social awareness, the fourth attribute, is the ability to understand others' feelings and emotions when making decisions. 

    People with empathy have acute organizational awareness, possess a service orientation, and are attentive to others. The final attribute, relationship management, involves the ability to manage and forge relationships with others ( Goleman , 1998).There has been a vast amount of research on El outside of nursing. Articles and books have touted the relationship between successful business leaders and high levels of El. Akerjordet and Severinsson (2008) found that nurses who displayed high El enhanced organizational, staff, and patient outcomes.

Impact of Emotional Intelligence In Nursing Education 

    Nursing's newest generation learns differently. Millennials (those born after 1981) prefer interactive activities and are most comfortable with technology and multi tasking. Journaling, post conference discussions, blogging, and posting questions and instructing students to respond through creating threads on an electronic platform are ways for the faculty to learn more about students and the talents the students bring to the learning environment. 

    Discussions between faculty and students about prior life experiences in an authentic manner build a trusting relationship and enable faculty to be viewed more as coaches/mentors than teachers.Elis important for nurses because most of what they do is interacting with others (eg, patients, families, multidisciplinary team) in environments filled with stress and change. The ability to manage one's own emotions and interpret a patient's emotions to a situation is an integral piece of true patient centered care. 

    Therefore, attention needs to focus on implementing strategies whereby nurses enhance their coping mechanisms so they can provide compassionate and quality care.There is a need for current research to target studies on El, particularly in relation to new knowledge about enhancing El skills among nursing students. As nursing education research expands, this topic is a promising area for scholarly inquiry.