Introduction: Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to recognize feelings, identify them clearly, comprehend them, control and use them to express thoughts. In everyday situations, such as communicating with others or making decisions, feelings play a significant role. Emotional support is essential in a profession such as nursing, which requires not only technical knowledge but also psychological support. It is important to highlight that the more complicated the job, the more important emotional intelligence is. That is why understanding one’s own emotions and developing emotional intelligence are critical to the advancement of a profession (1). The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate nurses’ and technicians’ attitudes toward emotional intelligence in relation to work experience, stress, and their own emotions.
Methods: A survey was carried out among nurses and technicians at the Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation in Zagreb. Demographic data and questions implying the relationship between their emotions in everyday work, communication skills, and their attitude toward the working environment’s relationship to the development of emotional intelligence were analyzed.
Results: Analysis of a survey of 24 nurses and 1 technician, with 76 percent having higher expertise, 12 percent having medium expertise, and 12 percent having high expertise. 68 percent of participants have working experience for more than 16 years, and 92 percent are familiar with emotional intelligence. More than half of those polled believe that their own good mood helps them solve problems, and 44 percent believe that length of service contributes to better emotional control. Almost half of the employees, 48 percent, believe they can generally assess emotions by observing another person, and 44 percent believe communication skills help them do so. Although 60% of employees learn from negative experiences, the working environment influences the development of emotional intelligence in 52% of them depending on the situation.
Conclusion: Developing emotional intelligence contributes to greater self-control, which is required in nursing work, as well as problem solving and adequate treatment in stressful situations, which are unfortunately an unavoidable part of a nurse/daily technician’s work. By analyzing the survey, we can argue that employees and other people have a tendency to control and recognize their own emotions, but creating a better working environment also stimulates more positive emotions in employees, resulting in better problem solving and stress reduction.