Emotional Intelligence, Self-Efficacy and Empathy as Predictors of Overall Self-Esteem in Nursing by Years of Experience

Abstract

Empirical research on self-esteem has a special interest in nursing professionals, because they work in a challenging environment that requires, in order to continue working during their working age, a strong physical, social and emotional involvement. The objective was to determine the explanatory value of individual variables such as Self-efficacy, Empathy and Emotional Intelligence on Self-esteem in a sample of nursing professionals, to identify which variables have the most explanatory value for overall self-esteem with years of experience. The study sample consisted of a total of 1,601 Spanish nurses aged 22–60, with a mean age of 31.19 (SD = 6.59) years. The emotional intelligence factors in all cases were observed to have positive correlations with overall self-esteem. Mood was still the predictor with the most explanatory weight in all the groups. General Self-Efficacy disappeared in the model of professionals with the most experience. Organizations and management nursing should implement intervention programs that promote wellbeing and satisfaction in workers during their working age. It would be of interest to train nursing professionals in such necessary competences as Empathy, Emotional Intelligence and Self-Efficacy.

Analysis of the Relationship between the Psychological Well-Being, Emotional Intelligence, Willpower, and Job-Efficacy of Clinical Nurses: A Structural Model Application

“…Emotional intelligence is gaining interest for its ability to promote the performance of high-level nursing by integrating nurses’ personal skills and patient-personal skills [ 42 , 43 ]. The results of this study are consistent with the studies of Pérez-Fuentes et al (2019) that the higher the emotional intelligence level, the lower the job stress and the higher the job-efficacy [ 44 ]. Lee and Seo (2015) argued that job-efficacy has an effect on areas such as positive outcome expectation and job satisfaction, and this helps to develop into a sense of satisfaction with overall life [ 45 ].…”

The Emotional Intelligence, Occupational Stress, and Coping Characteristics by Years of Nursing Experiences of Newly Hired Oncology Nurses

“…[ 14 22 23 ] The EI self-expression dimension and subdimension assertiveness scores were significantly lower for new graduates compared to nurses in the other groups and suggested that a nurses' ability to effectively communicate their feelings increased with years of nursing experience. Findings were consistent with studies comparing EI and years of experiences of nursing groups[ 5 19 38 39 ] and consistent with the proposition that EI is a learned behavior and can improve over time. [ 10 11 ]…”

“…[ 14 19 26 28 39 ] Although this analysis used data used from a prior study,[ 24 ] findings were similar to recent nursing studies. [ 14 15 19 21 22 23 26 28 39 ] The collective findings could be used to inform the development of oncology-focused, supportive EI, and coping interventions to alleviate the ubiquitous OS that exists throughout the nursing workplace and in diverse cancer settings.…”

“…[ 28 ] However, empathy scores were higher, but not significant, for new graduates than for nurses with more experience in this study compared to significant findings in related studies. [ 23 39 ] Possible causes for the decrease in empathy in nurses with more years of nursing experiences may be related to age, high levels of stress, skepticism, burnout,[ 23 ] nursing workload,[ 28 ] and self-esteem[ 39 ] and requires further investigation in oncology nurses.…”

The Relationship Between Empathic Tendency, Life Satisfaction and Professional Self-esteem Among Turkish Military Health Students

“…In our study, a positive and signi cant relationship was found between empathic tendency and professional self-esteem. The results of the study are similar to the literatüre [39][40][41]. The health sector needs healthcare professionals who can empathize in order to maintain a healthy patient-healthcare relationship, to approach the patient with understanding, to understand and feel their lives and feelings.…”