How Emotional Intelligence Helps Ensure Patients' Safety

There is no doubt that nursing is one of the most rewarding careers out there. Those individuals who choose to become nurses have the opportunity to help patients and families through some of the most difficult and rewarding times in their lives. From births to deaths, nurses are the soldiers that take patients through the trenches and out the other side.

As rewarding as the profession is, nursing also poses some significant challenges, and at times it can feel like a thankless job. Grumpy patients, demanding families, juggling multiple tasks at once, increasing workloads and endless paperwork are just a few of the ‘not so fun’ part of nursing. One of the biggest challenges that nurses face is the potential for making mistakes.  Nurses are humans, and humans make mistakes, unfortunately though when a nurse makes a mistake it could put a patient’s life a serious risk. 

Deaths due to mistakes made by medical practitioners are not always recorded, as they are not even caught, making putting an exact number on the number of patients who have been affected by human error difficult. Studies have shown that when recorded, as many as 250,000 deaths in the United States are caused by nurses, doctors and caretakers who have made a mistakes. One of the main causes of human error comes down to poor communication.

Recent theories have emerged around emotional intelligence and communication. The idea is that developing the proper skills to strengthen emotional intelligence in the workplace - particularly for those who work as nurses - is a way to improve communication, which in turn improves patient care and can ultimately reduce the number of workplace errors.

What is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence, sometimes referred to as EI, is defined as being able to recognize and understand one’s emotions and those of others, and more importantly, being able to manage those emotions. Emotional intelligence could potentially be a way to reduce mistakes in healthcare settings by improving overall communication.

EI has actually been around for more than 20 years. During that time, it has slowly become more and more popular in various settings including workplaces. For example, the construction industry uses emotional intelligence to help their workers remain safe while on a project and has seen a decrease in workplace accidents. There are five components of emotional intelligence that can have a significant impact on workers in any industry but particularly for those in the medical field. These include:

• Motivation: For nurses in particular, the motivation to help their patients is critical in ensuring open communication and patient safety.
• Social skill: A nurse with strong social skills and an ability to talk to patients and their families to help them fully understand their situation is critical to building a trusting environment.
• Empathy: This is especially important for patient safety. A nurse who doesn’t take into account a patient’s feelings towards their situation will sometimes make decisions based on textbooks without thinking of how it will impact the patient.
• Self-awareness: This is the ability to know oneself on an emotional level. A person’s strengths, weaknesses and the ability to recognize how their actions or words impact others. Being able to listen to their own gut feeling, which is often right despite what logic might say.
• Self-regulation: This is the ability to redirect those disruptive feelings, impulses and emotions and being able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. Another way of putting it is if a nurse is having a bad day, they need to be able to turn off those bad vibes at the start of their shift so that they can focus 100% on their patients and  their needs. 

Emotional intelligence and communication

A large part of caring for patients is open and clear communication. The skills that are developed through emotional intelligence also plays a big role in creating good communication practices in the healthcare setting. Since the majority of medical information communicated to nurses is through their interaction with patients, good and clear communication could significantly decrease human errors and improve patient safety. 

To ensure that information is clearly transferred, the first thing nurses need to do is assess themselves or, rather, use self-regulation. If a nurse is stressed out because of an argument they may have had at home or even a sticky interaction early on in the shift, they must be able to push aside those feelings - and concentrate on their patient and the information that is being shared with them.

Nurses should also be tuned into what their patient is saying and how they are saying it.  If a nurse is staring at the chart of computer screen  while inputting information without pausing and looking directly at the patient, they may miss on obvious signs that the patient may be anxious or uncomfortable. Communication is more than talking and listening - it’s also about using and observing the visual cues that are being demonstrated.

Caring for a patient body, mind and soul

By using the skills that come with a developed emotional intelligence, nurses have the ability to care for a patient body, mind and soul. The medical training will allow nurses to ensure that the patient is comfortable and is receiving the proper care for the condition to allow their body to heal. With social skills and empathy, a nurse can build a sense a trust between the patient, their families and themselves.  When a patient and their family has trust in their nurse, they are more likely to clearly communicate with them what is going on and if anything needs to be intervened upon.  A nurse who pays attention and watches and listens to their patient, will provide the best possible care they can and that little bit of extra attention can mean a reduction in mistakes.

Nursing as part of a team

There is no I in team, which is true for almost every profession including nursing.  Nurses who are in tune with their emotional intelligence are able to effectively collaborate with colleagues and provide a wide range of care for their patients. Accepting other’s opinions, suggestions and asking for help is critical to reducing the potential for accidents and increase patient safety. 

As it is with any workplace setting conflicts will occur. Whether it’s a difference of opinion between colleagues, an argument with a supervisor or a conflict with a patient’s family, conflicts will happen. Developed emotional intelligence ties into positive conflict resolution skills. When issues are confronted and managed well, this will ensure continued productivity in the workplace and will helps to remove distractions which can negatively affect patients and have an impact on the care they receive.

Mistakes are going to happen - it’s unavoidable because no one is perfect.  For nurses though, when mistakes can potentially be deadly, taking steps to create an environment where mistakes happen less often and result in a less negative impact is critical. More concrete studies and research around emotional intelligence and how it affects those in healthcare needs to be conducted.

Nurses who choose to develop their emotional intelligence is not going to hurt anyone or anything.  If nothing else, the development of emotional intelligence can have a positive effect on a person by helping them gain the skills needed to deal with stress in general.  Emotional intelligence is a simple tool that can can be used by anyone, but for nurses it can impact not only their performance at work but also the overall safety of their patients.