Emotional intelligence and its correlation with some demographic variables in the clinical nurses working in Kurdistan University Hospitals in 2010

Nurses must be able to recognize and manage emotions and feelings of themselves and clients; also, they must have good empathic and communication skills. These capabilities are part of the constituent elements of emotional intelligence. The aim of this study was to determine the level of emotional intelligence, its components and its correlation with some demographic variables in nurses working in the hospitals of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences in 2010.

This descriptive study included 344 nurses. Bar-On questionnaire was used to collect required information. Data were analyzed by use of SPSS-18 software.

86.6% of the subjects were female and 13.4% were male. The majority of nurses (77.8%) had a good level of emotional intelligence. Of the five components of emotional intelligence, interpersonal component with a mean value and SD of 77.2% ± 12.5% had the highest score. Among the 15 factors related to emotional intelligence, social responsibility, empathy and interpersonal skills with mean values and SD score of 82.16%±14.14, 76.84%±13.74%, and 73.59%±15.64% had the highest score, respectively. Emotional intelligence had no correlation with demographic variables of gender, work background, marital status, university and university degree.

The nurses had a good level of emotional intelligence in regard to empathy, social responsibility and interpersonal relationships, but improvement of other skills such as problem solving, control of impulsivity and toleration of psychological pressure are also important because of their importance in nursing care.