Abstract

PULIDO-MARTOS, Manuel; AUGUSTO-LANDA, José M.  and  LOPEZ-ZAFRA, Esther. Nursing students in their clinical practice: the role of emotional intelligence on occupational stressors and well-being. Index Enferm [online]. 2016, vol.25, n.3, pp.215-219. ISSN 1699-5988.

Objective: In this paper we analyze the influence of Perceived Emotional Intelligence (PEI) on occupational stressors and psychological well-being of nursing students during their clinical practice. Methods: This study is descriptive, cross-sectional and self-report based. A total of 127 nursing students, enrolled in their clinical practices in health settings, completed a set of questionnaires measuring PEI, occupational stressors in clinical practices, and psychological well-being. They were selected when they attended the university at theoretical classes, by convenience sampling. Results: Our results show that emotional attention was the main predictor for occupational stress during clinical practices, whereas emotional clarity and repair predicted psychological well-being. Taken together, emotional attention and emotional repair have partly accounted for the variance of five out of nine sources of job stress during clinical practice. Specifically, contact with suffering, inability to control relations with the patient, emotional involvement, patients seeking an intimate relation and workload. Also, the clarity and emotional repair accounted for part of the variance in the dimensions of psychological well-being. Conclusions: These findings are important to prepare future nurses to face and to cope with occupational stressors.

Keywords : Emotional intelligence; Nursing students; Occupational stressors; Psychological well-being.