Relationship between Spiritual Health and Emotional Intelligence of Nurses: A Cross-sectional Study in Southeastern Iran

Nurses are constantly experiencing various tensions considering their sensitive profession, so that, their physical, mental, and spiritual health aspects are at risk, and this issue can affect the quality of their care for patients. In this regard, this study was conducted to investigate the relationships between nurses' spiritual health and emotional intelligence.

This is a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study. The study’s sample population included all nurses working in the Bam’s Pasteur Hospital (Bam city, Kerman Province, Iran). Sampling was done by available methods and in the end, 165 nurses were accepted to participate in the present study. Paloutzian and Ellison Spiritual Health Questionnaire and Bradbury and Greaves Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire were used to assess nurses' spiritual health and emotional intelligence, respectively. The collected data from questionnaires were entered into SPSS-18 software and were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistical tests.

According to obtained results, the mean scores of spiritual health and emotional intelligence of the participants were 76.48±13.29 and 118.80±16.68, respectively. Among the demographic variables, only gender showed a significant relationship with the level of spiritual health (P=0.016). Also, a positive and significant correlation was observed between spiritual health and emotional intelligence (r=0.274, P=0.002).

The present study revealed moderate levels of spiritual health and high levels of emotional intelligence in the participants. thus, providing workshops in hospitals seems necessary to promote spiritual health via enhancing emotional intelligence in working nurses. As a more effective and long-term solution, we suggest that universities pay more attention to future nurses’ spiritual health by including courses related to spiritual well-being and emotional intelligence.