Relationship between nurses’ emotional intelligence and their perception of patient safety climate

Abstract

Background Emotional intelligence is regarded as an important characteristic for building stable and healthy emotions among nursing staff that enhances nursing performance, supports the concept of nurse–patient relationship, and encourages the nurses to be more involved in decision making in providing care. Emotional intelligence helps individuals to perform well in risky tasks and could be beneficial for patients under the care of nurses through improving the patient safety climate. Aim The aim was to assess the relationship between nurses’ emotional intelligence and their perception of patient safety climate. Design A descriptive correlational design was used for this study sample. Patients and methods The study was conducted at New Kasr Al-Aini Teaching Hospital, Cairo University Hospital, on a convenience sample of 250 staff nurses. Results The results revealed that the total mean percent of emotional intelligence of nurses was 86.64%, which indicates high level of emotional intelligence, and the total mean score of patient safety climate was 72.33%, which indicates high level of patient safety. In addition, there was a highly statistically significant positive correlation (P=0.00) between emotional intelligence and patient safety climate. Conclusion Nurses had high level of emotional intelligence and patient safety climate. There was a highly statistically significant positive correlation between emotional intelligence and patient safety climate. Recommendation There should be increased staff participation in development and training to emphasize the power of emotional intelligence. The aim should be to improve the level of self-awareness, self-management, social consciousness, and relationship management among nurses to increase emotional intelligence and maintain patient safety climate.