EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND TYPES OF HOSTILITY AMONG NURSE STUDENTS

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1 Medical Interferences EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND TYPES OF HOSTILITY AMONG NURSE STUDENTS Magdalena IORGA, Tudor CIUHODARU 2, Camelia SOPONARU 3 Lecturer, PhD, Gr.T.Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania 2 Associate professor, PhD, Apollonia University of Medicine, Iasi, Romania 3 Associate professor, PhD, Al. I. Cuza University, Iasi, Romania Corresponding author: tudorciuhodaru@yahoo.co.uk Abstract The objective of the research is to identify the emotional intelligence quotient and types of hostility among freshman nurse students. Materials and method: 89 nurse students, first academic year of study, answered questions addressed through the Emotional intelligence test and Buss- Durkee Hostility Inventory. Different variables, such as age, gender, number of children in the family of origin or parents level of education, were considered. Collected data were analysed with SPSS 7.0. Results: Age distribution is between 9 and 48 years, with M = ± 9.42, whereas the emotional intelligence quotient shows a M = 92.0± The correlational study identified a negative correlation between IE and resentment (-270*, p =.04), indirect hostility (-.223*, p =.044) and a strong negative correlation with suspicion (-.289**, p = 008). A positive correlation between parents level of education and emotional intelligence was shown (0.220*, p = ). Conclusions: The study identifies the relationship between emotional intelligence and different types of hostility. Results are important for nurses and also for the university staff, to improve curricula and teaching methods and to develop emotional skills during theoretical and practical sessions. Keywords: emotional intelligence, hostility, nurse student, psychological profile.. INTRODUCTION For the nursing profession, the medical act cannot be separated from emotional involvement. The medical assistant profession is a humanistic one and emotional involvement, communication abilities and empathic skills are important for its practicing. That is why numerous researches relate the yard of student nurse learning environment to the quality of nursing. University curricula for this speciality includes different courses aiming at developing communication skills, knowledge about patient s psychology and information on chronic disease consequences upon life quality. The nursing process, introduced in Britain in the 70 ies, was taken over from USA; it was described as a philosophical and operational method, promoting a people-centred approach opposing the task-centred approach characterizing the traditional philosophy of caring. This approach is valuable by the emotional care offered to the patient. The terms were better explained by the theory on emotional work of Hochschild, referring to the good results of the emotional labour at the working place. The author defines emotion work as the process of managing and presenting emotions in the private sphere of our lives, such as amongst family and friends. In contrast to this, emotional labour is the management of feeling for creating a publicly observable facial and bodily display by service workers []. Consequently, various trainings are offered to student nurses in order to achieve these skills. Nurses should consider patients psychological and emotional needs and their good communication capacities recommend them to be emotional labourers. In recent decades, the concept of emotional intelligence has increased its in knowledge, use and popularity. The interest to apply this concept to personal, social and professional aspects of life determined the development of numerous theories, researches and measuring instruments. Insertion of nurse training into higher education brought to an upper level the expectations regarding nurse s training so that numerous studies focused on nurse student s higher education and on the efficiency of this kind of curricula for improving interpersonal skills [2]. Nowadays, the main goal of nurse education is to put together the rational and the emotional 04 Volume 6 Issue 2 April / June 206

2 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND TYPES OF HOSTILITY AMONG NURSE STUDENTS mind, as Goleman and followers (based on prior theories of Bar-On [3] in 997, Damasio [4] in 995 and of Salovey and Mayer, in 997, respectively) described and promoted in the last decades. Integrating emotional intelligence curricula into the university courses renders students more receptive as to their own feelings and manner of developing relationships with the others [5]. Emotional intelligence (EI) is reported to be a predictor of the interpersonal and communications skills in medical schools [6]. In many American universities, for example, personal and interpersonal qualities and abilities are important criteria for medical school admission [7] while, in Romania, such criteria are not considered as part of the admission evaluation in the faculty. The aim of the present study is to identify the level of emotional intelligence and hostility types in freshman nurse students and to register the possible correlations between or with other variables - like age, gender or parents level of education. As emotional ability increases with age [8], this research aims at evaluating nurse students emotional quotient and hostility types in their first year of study and at evidencing the possible correlations related to the mentioned variables. 2. MATERIALS AND METHOD The research was conducted in a medical university of East Romania. A number of 89 firstyear nurse students voluntarily answered to 2 tests: Emotional intelligence and Buss- Durkee Hostility Inventory. The tests were distributed in printed format and filled in after obtaining informed consent of the participants. The Emotional Intelligence Test (a Cronbach alpha value =.78 was recorded) was adapted by Mihaela Roco [9], according to David Bar-On and Daniel Goleman. The test includes 0 items, expressed as questions, each having four possible answers which give an overall EI score. Different situations are presented as scenarios from which a person can learn. The selected answer reflects subject s extent of transposition in the situation and his/her possible future reactions. The Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory BDHI [4] (Cronbach alpha =.78) has 66 items and defines 7 scales, measuring the levels of negativism (the subject opposes authority), resentment (defined as jealousy on others, often up to hatred), indirect hostility (defined as a behavior that reorients hostility towards someone in a roundabout way), assault (involving physical violence and willingness to use it against someone else), suspicion (projection of hostility onto others), irritability (defined as readiness to explode at the slightest provocation) and verbal aggression (negative affect expressed in words). Subject must agree or disagree to the items, by filling in words true or false. The following variables were taken into consideration: age, gender, number of children in the family, level of education for both parents. The collected data were processed with the SPSS statistical processing software (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 7.0 for Windows, the following types of statistical methods being applied: -- descriptive statistics, analyzing the central tendency and dispersion indices -- (mean and standard deviation), -- correlational analysis, pointing out the correlations between the independent and dependent variables, by calculating Pearson s correlation coefficient. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The students from nurse schools are predominately women. In our research, according to gender, 9.0% of subjects are women (N = 8) and 8.99 (N = 8) are men. The age distribution is from 9 to 48 years, with M = ± The distribution of students according to age, presented in Figure, describes a frequent situation during the last two decades among the medical students in Romania: the presence of mature students. Analysis of statistical data referring to age shows that a lot of experienced (college level or professional medical school degree) nurses are continuing with university education. So, part of the students are simultaneously working and studying. International Journal of Medical Dentistry 05

3 Magdalena IORGA, Tudor CIUHODARU, Camelia SOPONARU Fig.. Distribution of subjects according to age The students come from 5 districts, geographically close to the academic center, as follows: Iasi (73.03%), Suceava (0.%), Botosani (7.87%), Vaslui (3.37%), Neamt (3.375) and Bacau (2.26%) % (N = 54) of them are single and 39.33% are divorced or involved in a relationship. Data regarding parents education evidenced a positive correlation between parents level of education (0.220*, p = ), meaning that, usually, parents share this value of life. No correlation was identified between the number of children in the family and other variables of the research. The results for the emotional intelligence quotient show a M = 92.0±26.94 (with the minimum value = 40 and the maximum = 65). The distribution of EQ is presented in Table 2. Correlational analysis identified a positive correlation between fathers educational level and the QE level (0.227*, p = ). Fig. 2. QE distribution 06 Volume 6 Issue 2 April / June 206

4 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND TYPES OF HOSTILITY AMONG NURSE STUDENTS The correlational study identified a negative correlation between EI and resentment (-270*, p =.04), indirect hostility (-.223*, p =.044) and also a strong negative correlation with suspicion (-.289**, p = 008). These results prove that emotional intelligence leads to a better understanding of emotions and their wiser management, so that emotions are not transformed into dissimulative behaviors. A person with a high EI level is able to deal with emotions and feelings and to use emotions in a positive and proper manner. According to Goleman, emotional intelligence is the capacity to use emotional information for controlling thinking and behavior [0]. Salovey and Mayer define EI as the ability to accurately perceive, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth []. Persons who better understand the emotional aspects of life avoid the accumulation of emotions, the emotional spiral constructed by the ruminative process and become more aware about their true feelings. Gaining emotional skills assures a higher level of emotional well-being [2,3]. Taking into account that intelligence quotients could increase along one s life, educational curricula should focus on developing emotional skills during academic years in order to increase the scores for emotional intelligence and to diminish hostility. Other correlations obtained in the present research are presented in Table. Table. Correlation between Hostility Scale and QE items QE Negativism (N) Resentment (R) Indirect hostility (IH) Assault (A) Suspicion (S) Irritability (I) Verbal hostility (VH) QE -0.63, P= * p * p= p= ** p= p= p=.728 N p= p= p= p= p= p= p=.07 R -270* p= p = * p= p= * p=.0.220* p= p=.539 IH -.223* p= P= * p=.07.5 p= p= p= p=.900 A -.49 p=.8.09 p= p= p= ** p= * p= p=.05 S -.289* p= P= * p= p= ** p= ** p= ** p=.00 I -.03 P= P= * p= p= ** p= ** p= ** p=.000 VH.039 p= P= p= p= p= ** p= ** p=.000 The negative correlations between emotional intelligence and the different types of hostility are important results related to nurse s profession. Nurses have to deal daily with stress and a lot of types of difficult patients, being expected to manage their hostile behaviours. So, higher scores of emotional intelligence are empowering nurses to better adapt to their duties. As already mentioned, it is important to point that the scores for all types of intelligence are not static; they become higher when nurtured by personal experiences and developed through university curricula. Many researches showed why it is so important to develop emotional skills during the academic International Journal of Medical Dentistry 07

5 Magdalena IORGA, Tudor CIUHODARU, Camelia SOPONARU years. In some studies, a higher emotional intelligence is revealed as a predictor of academic and/or professional success [4], being associated with less fatigue [5] and reduced test anxiety [6]; apparently, it is the most important predictor of perceived stress [7]. Also, emotional intelligence was associated with a higher mental and physical health [8]. Studies focusing on first year medical student evaluation of the emotional intelligence quotient revealed a high EI score among students from this type of faculty compared to others [9] and a strong correlation with a higher job satisfaction [20]. The findings of this study should be interpreted with caution, as they present a series of limitations. First, the research has evaluated first-year students enrolled in a single university, so that no generalized national conclusion available for all nurse students can be reached. The relationships between the types of hostility and the emotional intelligence level should be carried out on different kinds of student populations. Secondly, a longitudinal study could identify more clearly the emotional level for the first year university students EI. However, despite these limitations, the study demonstrates the usefulness of the methods using emotional intelligence tasks in developing nurse student s capacities regarding these aspects. Working with emotions is an important aspect of the nursepatient relationship: the nurse will better manage his/her own emotions, and will also influence patient s emotions on investigations, treatments, fears, vision about disease, etc. The emotional capacities developed during the academic years will lead to a better accomplishment of their tasks and to better coping with daily stress and frustration. Accordingly, a higher emotional capacity is leading to a higher adaptability and a better adjustment for coping with distress and daily negative emotions [2, 22, 23]. 4. CONCLUSIONS Emotional intelligence has a great impact on the nurse-patient relationship, guiding nurses towards a better identification of his/her own skills, while also creating and managing a good relationship with patients. A higher EI level assures a lower rate of hostility, especially about resentment, indirect hostility and suspicion. Influences from the part of other variables were also revealed. Because the scientific researches proved that emotional intelligence is related to job satisfaction and stress, being viewed as a predictor for academic and professional success, the results are important for teachers and trainers in order to introduce new courses and to develop university curricula providing new practical and theoretical opportunities for nurse students. References. Hochschild AR. The managed heart. Berkeley: University of California Press; Smith P. The nursing process: raising the profile of emotional care in nurse training. J Adv Nurs. 99;6(): Bar-On R. The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i): A test of emotional intelligence. Toronto: Multi- Health Systems; 997. p Damasio AR. Review: Toward a Neurobiology of Emotion and Feeling: Operational Concepts and Hypotheses. Neuroscientist. 995;(): Evans D, Allen H. Emotional intelligence: Its role in training. Nurs Times. 2002;98(27): Carr SE. Emotional intelligence in medical students: does it correlate with selection measures? Med Educ. 2009; 43(): Carrothers RM, Gregory SW Jr, Gallagher TJ. Measuring emotional intelligence of medical school applicants. Acad Med. 2000;75(5): Mayer JD, Salovey P, Caruso DR, Sitarenios G. Emotional intelligence as a standard intelligence. Emotion. 200;(3): Roco M. Inteligenta emotionala si creativitate. Iasi: Polirom Publishing House; Goleman D. Emotional Intelligence. New York, NY, England: Bantam Books, Inc; Mayer JD, Salovey P. Emotional intelligence and the construction and regulation of feelings. Appl Prev Psychol. 995;4(3): Vergara AI, Alonso-Alberca N, San-Juan C, Aldás J, Vozmediano L. Be water: Direct and indirect relations between perceived emotional intelligence and subjective wellsbeing. Aust J Psychol. 205;67(): Urquijo I, Extremera N, Villa A. Emotional Intelligence, Life Satisfaction, and Psychological Well-Being in Graduates: the Mediating Effect of Perceived Stress. Appl Res Qual Life. 205; -2. doi: 0.007/s Volume 6 Issue 2 April / June 206

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