Nurses' Emotional Intelligence Impact on the Quality of Hospital Services

BACKGROUND: Emotional intelligence is the potential to feel, use, communicate, recognize, remember, describe, identify, learn from, manage, understand and explain emotions. Service quality also can be defined as the post-consumption assessment of the services by consumers that are determined by many variables. OBJECTIVES: This study was aimed to determine the nurses’ emotional intelligence impact on the delivered services quality. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This descriptive - applied study was carried out through a cross-sectional method in 2010. The research had 2 populations comprising of patients admitted to three academic hospitals of Yazd and the hospital nurses. Sample size was calculated by sample size formula for unlimited (patients) and limited (nursing staff) populations and obtained with stratified- random method. The data was collected by 4 valid questionnaires. RESULTS: The results of study indicated that nurses' emotional intelligence has a direct effect on the hospital services quality. The study also revealed that nurse's job satisfaction and communication skills have an intermediate role in the emotional intelligence and service quality relation. CONCLUSIONS: This paper reports a new determinant of hospital services quality.