Emotional Intelligence among Nurses and Its Relationship with Their Performance and Work Engagement: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background. Several studies identified that emotional intelligence skills are important indicators for nurse engagement and performance. Issues related to nursing performance in healthcare organizations have been gaining greater attention because they influence the effectiveness of improvement approaches to maintain high-quality care. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between emotional intelligence and nurses’ work performance and work engagement. Methods. A quantitative, descriptive, correlational design was used to evaluate the relationships between the study variables. Data were gathered from 150 nurses working at Madinah Cardiac Center, Saudi Arabia. Three scales were used to measure the study variables which were Emotional Intelligence Scale, Job Performance Scale, and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale in addition to demographics. SPSS was used to analyze data. Results. The results of this study showed that emotional intelligence has a total mean of 3.77 (SD = 0.598), nurses’ performance 3.65 (SD = 0.503), and work engagement 4.29 (SD = 1.04). The results also showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and nurses’ work performance (R2 = 0.657, $p<0.001$ ). Also, it was found that emotional intelligence has a positive and significant relationship with nurses’ work engagement (R2 = 0.621, $p<0.001$ ). Conclusions. This paper highlights the influence of emotional intelligence in nurses’ improved performance and engagement in work. The field of nursing is associated with care and compassion; thus, it needs a high level of emotional intelligence. Nurses need to enhance their emotional intelligence skills by attending workshops. Nurse leaders also have a role in that by building a culture for nurses that is driven by applying emotional intelligence in the workplaces.