1. I
UNIVERSITY OF
PIRAEUS
M.Sc in Health Managment
TEI OF PIRAEUS
HITOU G. PANAGIOTA
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE
AND HOW IT IS RELATED ΤΟ PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT
Thesis supervisor : Yannis A. Pollalis
Professor, Associate Chairman, Department of Economic Science,
University of Piraeus
M.Sc. Thesis
Piraeus, 2012
2. II
ABSTRACT
In recent years, both the business and the medical community seemed to realize that
feeling can be an important factor that can affect performance and job satisfaction. For
nearly a decade, business success is linked to the occurrence of specific features that were
described by researchers as Emotional Intelligence (EI). The five components of
emotional intelligence at work are self-awareness, self-management, self-motivation,
social awareness and social influence. Emotional intelligence can be measured by
appropriate tests and can be developed with proper training.
It has already been discussed in the literature of medical education, that emotional
intelligence can be used to evaluate and determine the levels of competency in the caring
/ ethical dimensions and measurements for the selection of students that will be trained in
medical school in particular when it comes to interpersonal and communication skills.
Doctors considered the key person handling the doctor-patient relationship, influencing
the way patients perceive and feel about the treatment and their disease. As a result, the
interpersonal and communication skills are designed to be as one of the six areas of
competency of physicians by the Accreditation Council for Medical Education
(Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education).
The broader area of health is complex. It consists of the hospitals/health care institutions
and in general companies providing health services where emphasis is placed on
performance of medical and nursing staff (and profit in case of a private healthcare
organization) and other companies that produce drugs, consumables and medical-
technical equipment . These operations’ principal objective is to produce safe and
effective products that naturally generate profits and ensure the organization’s viability.
The final recipient of health services is the patient: direct recipient when it comes to
health services, indirect when it comes to consumption of drugs and consumables. The
purpose of this paper is to examine the role of emotional intelligence in health and how it
is related to Performance Management.
The relationship of emotional intelligence and nursing work has been studied for years, as
attested by their respective publications and nobody doubts that emotional competence in
all four sets of characteristics of EI is an essential skill for practicing the nursing
profession. From the other hand EI in nursing job is positively associated with increased
performance and effective leadership. What has to be done, are the needs identified in
3. III
theory and practice meet. So the next step which is expected is, training programs to start
for nurses who will focus on learning and development of EI both at students and
postgraduates.
Reports from the literature clearly indicate that the development of emotional intelligence
help doctors better cope with the problems facing in their workplace (better stress
management, team work and collaboration with other health professionals, avoiding job
burnout, greater job satisfaction and ultimately better quality of patients’ care). It also
leads to improvement of their performance as defined by increased patient satisfaction
and development of a relationship of trust between doctor and patient. EI proved to be
that a key feature for successful leadership when it comes to medical heads of
departments and general practitioners with administrative tasks. All that remains is what
has been documented through theoretical studies to be used in practice and thus education
in EI and leadership will be part of compulsory education in medical schools.
Modern health organizations should focus on improving all stuff’s EI to cope with a very
competitive and hostile environment, like the one evolving in healthcare today. The
developing of emotional intelligence can lead to a high performance in health outcomes,
as expressed by the highest quality of patient care, avoid medical errors and increase
patient satisfaction.
As for our country, there is little literature relating EI to healthcare (practically non-
existing). But the fact is because of the intensifying financial crisis, reduced financial
resources and constantly increasing needs, it is necessary to develop health professionals’
emotional competence and performance in order to cope with conditions that are
becoming more difficult. Hence, the next step in Greece and in other countries also,
would be EI training to be part of training at undergraduate or postgraduate level of health
studies, which will lead to increased capacity and efficiency of future health
professionals.
Keywords: emotional intelligence, health professionals, doctors, physicians, nurses,
health organizations performance.
