Emotional intelligence and intent to stay among nurses employed in Jordanian hospitals

Abstract

Aims This study aimed to examine the relationship between Emotional intelligence (EI) and intent to stay and to identify their correlates among nurses. Background EI plays a significant role in nurses’ practice, relationships, behaviours and decisions. Methods A descriptive, cross‐sectional study was conducted with a sample of 280 registered nurses working in a public, a private and a university hospital in Jordan. A self‐administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants. Results EI was significantly correlated with nurses’ intent to stay (r = .427, p < .01). Some of the nurses’ socio‐demographic and work‐related characteristics were found to predict EI and intent to stay. Conclusion The findings of the study came with a supportive knowledge about the positive impacts of EI on nurses’ intent to stay. Improving both EI and intent to stay among nurses is important because it could have positive effects on organisations’ decisions, policymaking process, quality of care, employee commitment and satisfaction. Implications for Nursing Management Nurse managers should pay attention to the EI of nurses during recruitment considering various determinants of EI identified in the current study. Additionally, nurse managers might want to strengthen factors associated with more stay intent among their staff.

Nursing turnover intentions: The role of leader emotional intelligence and team culture

“…The ability of emotional intelligence serves as remedial support to the challenged role of leadership (Riaz, Naeem, Khanzada, & Butt, 2018). The research proved that nurse leaders' possessing capabilities of emotional intelligence have the precedence to acknowledge and manage negative job attitudes, which ensures a conducive workplace (Al‐Hamdan et al, 2020). Leader emotional intelligence contributes towards creating a supportive culture for members by acknowledging and recognizing their emotions that may suppress nurses’ intention to leave the job.…”

“…Problems of high turnover in nursing and maintaining adequate numbers of nurses to meet staff requirements have a long history (Cheng, Bartram, Karimi, & Leggat, 2016; Currie & Hill, 2012; Lee et al., 2019; Thanacoody, Newman, & Fuchs, 2014). Nursing shortages and nurses' turnover intention are amongst the key challenges faced by health care organisations around the world (Al‐Hamdan et al, 2020). Nursing staff act as the key driver of the patient monitoring systems, evaluating patients' health, planning interventions with their teams and deducting adverse complications.…”

“…Such factors challenged the capacity of health care leaders to ensure appropriate staff requirements and a stress‐free work environment for nurses to achieve optimum patient care (Wong, Cummings, & Ducharme, 2013; Wu et al., 2020). The leader's role is acknowledged as a means to support employees by treating them intellectually and emotionally (Al‐Hamdan et al, 2020). Leaders empower staff, create conducive team culture and decrease work‐related stress of subordinates; hence, the leader's behaviour negatively influences the staff intentions to leave (Li, Gupta, Loon, & Casimir, 2016; Oh & Oh, 2017).…”

“…Furthermore, the theoretical lens of social exchange suggests culture as a platform that could influence employee job attitudes. This gap is acknowledged as the literature review revealed no consensus on the relationship amongst leader emotional intelligence, team culture and nursing turnover (Al‐Hamdan et al, 2020). A key question to be answered concerning this is how team culture impacts the turnover intention of nursing staff.…”

“…Such factors challenged the capacity of health care leaders to ensure appropriate staff requirements and a stressfree work environment for nurses to achieve optimum patient care (Wong, Cummings, & Ducharme, 2013;Wu et al, 2020). The leader's role is acknowledged as a means to support employees by treating them intellectually and emotionally (Al-Hamdan et al, 2020).…”