Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Nurse leader
emotional intelligence
How does it affect clinical nurse job satisfaction?
By Angela R. Coladonato, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, and Mary Lou Manning, PhD, CRNP, CIC, FAAN, FNAP
Effective nurs-
ing leadership is criti-
cal to successful organizational
outcomes and employee job satisfaction.
Strong leaders are skillful in relating to oth-
ers and creating relationships that are essential
to achieving their goals.1 Emotional intelligence (EI)
has been recognized in the social psychology literature
and is now receiving attention in the nursing theoretical
and empirical literature as having a significant impact on
leadership success.2 The concept of EI is defined as the abil-
ity to accurately perceive, appraise, and express emotion.3
EI encompasses the ability to control impulses and delay
gratification, regulate ones mood, and continue to be
motivated and empathize with others when faced with
frustrating situations.4
Theres evidence that emotionally intelligent
nurse leaders can help their organizations
create a competitive advantage through
improved retention of top talent,
intraprofessional team-
work, use of time
and resources, and
increased motivation
and innovation of team
members, as well as estab-
lished trust among nurs-
ing and leadership.5 Nurse
leaders who possess high EI
understand the impact of oth-
ers on both their professional and
personal well-being, showing an
appreciation of their contributions
and fostering a healthy environment
that supports staff engagement, job sat-
isfaction, continuous learning, information
sharing, and decision making.6,7 High EI
results in the ability to motivate employees
to do their jobs more effectively and increases
Decision Stress
Self-perception Self-expression Interpersonal
making management
Self- Stress
Assertiveness Empathy Reality testing
actualization tolerance
Emotional
Social
self- Independence Impulse control Optimism
responsibility
awareness
need to improve emotional skills qualities and the ways in which lated for demographic variables,
in specific areas (less than 90).19 the manager supports the nurse. total and composite EI scores; job
For the purposes of this study, Results are reported as mean enjoyment scores; and nurse
the researcher accessed only two scores. The higher the score, the manager ability, leadership, and
subscales within the NDNQI sur- more positive the rating.20 support of nurses scores. Twenty
vey: the job enjoyment scale and The EQ-i 2.0 instrument was nurse leaders participated in the
the nurse manager ability, leader- completed in approximately 20 to EQ-i 2.0 instrument. They were
ship, and support of nurses 30 minutes of uninterrupted time. homogenously female, between
scale.20 The job enjoyment scale Participation implied consent. ages 35 and 69, and worked full
consists of seven questions on a Demographic queries couldnt time. Educational levels ranged
six-point Likert scale, from be added to the EQ-i 2.0 tool from a diploma or associate
strongly agree to strongly dis- because the scores are computer degree through doctoral degrees.
agree. Results are reported as generated. Before EQ-i 2.0 data (See Table 1.) Existing data from
modified T-Scores, with 50 as the collection, the NDNQI survey the NDNQI survey included the
midpoint. Less than 40 indicates was completed by full or part- results of 79% (476/621) of eligi-
low satisfaction; 40 to 60, moder- time RNs who spend 50% of their ble direct care RNs.
ate satisfaction; and greater than time in direct patient care and The nurse leader total EI scores
60, high satisfaction.20 The nurse were employed at the hospital for ranged from 81 to 129, spanning
manager ability, leadership, and a minimum of 3 months. all three ranges, but the mean
support of nurses scale consists of total EI score was 104.76 (SD
five questions on a four-point Lik- Results 10.549) in the midrange (90 to
ert scale, from strongly agree to Data were analyzed through var- 110). The clinical nurse job enjoy-
strongly disagree. This scale mea- ious parametric tests using SPSS. ment scores ranged from 49.77
sures important nurse manager Descriptive statistics were calcu- to 75.20 (moderate satisfaction,
40 to 60; high satisfaction, greater nurses; clinical nurse job enjoy- played average-to-high EI. Clinical
than 60), with a mean score of ment; and nurse leader total EI nurse job enjoyment scores
61.60 (SD 7.6962). was obtained. In this instance, showed variability between
The nurse manager ability, there was a strong correlation moderate and high satisfaction,
leadership, and support of nurses between job enjoyment and indicating that clinical nurses on
scores ranged from 2.46 to 3.62, nurse manager ability, leader- some units were less satisfied
with a mean score of 2.96 (SD ship, and support of nurses than staff on other units. Consis-
0.3144). A favorable rating is a (r = .82, P < .01). tent with this, there was no sta-
mean score that exceeds 2.5. A In addition to the total EI tistically significant relationship
one-way analysis of variance was score, the EQ-i 2.0 results are bro- between clinical nurses job
calculated on clinical nurse job ken down into five composite enjoyment and the EI of their
enjoyment related to nurse leader scores, which, in turn, are broken nurse leaders.
total EI. The analysis wasnt sig- down into a total of 15 subscale Most staff members reported a
nificant: F (3,30) = 31, P = .822 scores. All mean composite favorable rating of their nurse
(P > .05). Alternately, the Pear- scores fell into the midrange managers ability, leadership,
son correlation coefficient and (90 to 110) and included self- and support of nurses. Further,
P value of nurse manager ability, perception (101.41, SD 11.335), the more that nurses enjoyed
leadership, and support of self-expression (102.97, SD 12.511), their job, the more they believed
interpersonal (106.6, SD 9.7450), that their nurse managers pos-
Table 1: Sample characteristics decision making (104.41, SD sessed strong ability, leadership,
11.980), and stress management and support. Finally, nurse lead-
Variable n %
(105.15, SD 10.944). ers who were good at knowing
Age group The scores for the 15 subscales themselves well (self-perception)
20-29 0 0 were also in the midrange, with a were more likely to have staff
mean score of 103.56 (range 97.88 members who enjoyed their jobs
30-39 1 5
to 109.82). (See Table 2.) The sub- and believed that their nurse
40-49 4 20 scales of self-actualization (97.88, managers ability, leadership,
50-59 10 50 SD 11.7) and problem solving and support of nurses were
(98.41, SD 12.033) had the lowest strong.
60 5 25
scores, whereas the subscales of EI is considered to be an
Education empathy (109.82, SD 9.233), opti- important facet of effective lead-
Diploma/associate 2 10 mism (107.5, SD 12.755), and ership. Nurse leaders are faced
degree in nursing emotional self-awareness (107.15, with the daunting challenge of
SD 11.024) had the highest scores. not only managing unit clinical
Bachelors degree 11 55
A multiple linear regression and administrative activities,
Masters degree 6 30 was calculated to predict job but also playing a significant
Doctoral degree 1 5 enjoyment and nurse manager role in translating and achieving
ability, leadership, and support of organizational goals within their
Position
nurses based on all five composite defined areas of responsibility.7
Nurse manager 13 65 scales. Only the self-perception Nurse leaders with high EI tend
Nurse director 7 35 composite scale significantly pre- to develop positive relationships
dicted job enjoyment (beta = -.75, with clinical nurses and are
Gender
t = -2.373, P < .05) and nurse better able to manage emotions
Female 20 100 manager ability, leadership, and in the workplace.21 Clinical
Male 0 0 support of nurses (beta = -.72, nurses who feel that their nurse
t = -2.360, P < .05). leader demonstrates high EI
Employment status report significantly greater job
Full-time 20 100 Discussion satisfaction.22
Part-time 0 0 The overwhelming majority of Results of this study add to
nurse leaders in this study dis- the limited, but growing, body