Distress among healthcare professionals often arises due to high workloads, emotional challenges, and systemic issues within the healthcare system. Over time, unmanaged distress leads not only to mental and physical health disorders but also to decreased work quality and reduced patient satisfaction. Emotional intelligence, which includes recognizing, understanding, and managing one’s and others’ emotions, can significantly impact nurses’ mental health and ability to cope with work pressures. Considering the increasing recognition of the importance of emotional intelligence in healthcare, it is relevant to assess nurses’ emotional intelligence and its relationship with the distress they experience. The study aimed to determine the links of emotional intelligence of nurses working in departments of mental health and therapeutic profile with distress. A quantitative study was carried out using an anonymous written questionnaire survey in health care institutions of the Klaipėda region providing secondary and tertiary level health care services. The questionnaire was based on standardized questionnaires. One hundred sixty-six nurses took part in the survey. The statistical program package “SPSS 24.0 for Windows” was used for data analysis. The research was performed following the ethical principles. It was established that nurses’ emotional intelligence is associated with the distress they experience. Nurses rated their emotional intelligence above average, with the highest scores in the use of emotions and the lowest in managing others’ emotions. The most common signs of distress among nurses included fatigue, sleep disturbances, anxiety, pain, weakness, and difficulty concentrating. Nurses working in psychiatric wards exhibited poorer emotional regulation and more frequently experienced sleep disturbances, pain, depression, and weakness compared to those working in therapeutic wards. Different components of emotional intelligence were linked to various aspects of distress: poorer emotional perception was associated with more frequent sleep disturbances, while lower emotional control in therapeutic wards was related to higher incidences of anxiety and depression. Conversely, better emotional control was linked to less frequent anxiety. The study revealed that emotional intelligence has a significant association with the distress experienced by nurses. Strengthening emotional intelligence can significantly reduce the risk of anxiety and the severity of distress symptoms; therefore, the development of emotional intelligence should be incorporated into nurses’ professional development programs and mental health promotion initiatives within healthcare institutions.Keywords: Nurses, Emotional Intelligence, Distress, Anxiety, Mental health.

Background: With the recent aging of the population, the transition to a disease structure centered on chronic diseases is accelerating. Moreover, the socio-economic gap and the polarization of the health gap between regions further increase the burden of disease on the country. Accordingly, this study calculated the disease cost of hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, which are the three major chronic diseases, to establish an effective health promotion policy strategy for each region, and analyzed the gap in disease cost within the region to determine health determinants at the individual as well as the regional level. Methods: This study utilized data from the 2015 sample cohort of the National Health Insurance Service and calculated the disease cost of patients (diabetes: I10-I15, hypertension: E10-E14, hyperlipidemia: E78) based on the main diagnosis. Results: Based on our analysis, the case of medical use in cities and provinces was higher than in metropolitan cities, with relatively small medical use in Seoul and Gangwon-do. In terms of the disease cost, the cost of chronic diseases in Seoul and Jeju was the highest, but the difference in disease cost between patients in each region was the largest in Seoul and Gangwon-do. Conclusion: The results of this study provide meaningful data for implementing efficient health promotion policies by analyzing the differences in disease cost and identifying health determinants in different regions. Furthermore, in Korea, where socioeconomic differences are clearly revealed, it can be used as a basis for preparing a strategic plan, from a long-term perspective, to improve the health of patients with chronic diseases in the future.