Introduction:

Nursing professionals are among the most exposed to situations which generate stress in the workplace and therefore they are more vulnerable to have higher job stress rates. Emotional intelligence could play a mediating role, so that, it could facilitate effective coping mechanisms before situations which generate stress.

Objective:

To evaluate the relationship between work-related stress and anxiety, as well as the association of both variables with emotional intelligence perceived in its three dimensions (attention, clarity and repair) in a sample of nurses from University Hospital of The Canary Island’s Specialised Services and Float Staff.

Method:

Correlational descriptive study in which, 258 people participated in the study (192 women, 66 men). The evaluations instrument were the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to asses anxiety, the Nursing Stress Scale questionnaire (Spanish version) to evaluate work stress, the Trait Meta Mood Scale (TMMS-24, Spanish version) to evaluate the perceived emotional intelligence and a questionnaire specifically designed to collect socio-labour variables.

Results:

We found direct and significant relationships between work stress and anxiety (state-trait). Emotional attention is shown as a positive predictor of anxiety and work stress, while emotional clarity and emotional repair are shown as negative predictors of anxiety. Emotional clarity and repair does not correlate significantly with work stress, although the dimension of clarity does show up as a negative predictor of job stress, although the clarity dimension show itself as a negative predictor of job stress.

Conclusions:

Women score significantly higher than men in work stress, anxiety and emotional attention. Work stress, anxiety and emotional attention are significantly reduced, while clarity and repair increase significantly with age and years of work experience. Float Staff are those with higher scores of work stress and anxiety followed by professionals working in the Emergency Room and ICU.

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