Emotional Intelligence In Relation To Patient Centered Care

Question: Discuss about the Emotional Intelligence In Relation To Patient Centered Care. Answer: Introduction The number one priority in hospitals all over the world is patient centered care. What is patient centered care? Its a multi-dimensional concept that addresses the needs of patients to information, focusses on the patient as an individual, views the patient as whole, promotes/ enhances professional-patient relationship and lastly it promotes concordance. Despites all the efforts made there is a problem in as professional health care providers differ in their capabilities to understand the perspectives of the patient hence compromising the patient centered care. The syllabus/curriculum in medical schools are the same. The students who enroll in this courses are the most intelligent. Why is it then, that when the training is over their performance in the medical field differs. The intelligent quotient (IQ) of these people are almost the same. What brings in the difference? Studies has shown that there is something called emotional intelligence (EI). Emotional intelligence is also known as personal intelligence, social intelligence, emotional literacy, emotional quotient, interpersonal intelligence. It has been defined as abilities which can be verbal or/and non-verbal. Which enables one to come up with, recognize, express and be able to understand and at the same time evaluate their own or other people emotions/feelings and be able to direct/guide action and thinking and successfully adapt with pressures and demands of the environment. In few words it is a group of behavioral competencies, different from Intelligent Quotient and it has an impact on job performance. Emotional intelligence started to be discussed in 1930s. Psychological researches were done from 1980s. The finding showed that overall performance was influenced more by social intelligence/ interpersonal intelligence rather than technical skills. In 1995, Dan Goleman published a book known as Emotional Intelligence in which he demonstrated how emotional intelligence was more important than intelligen ce quotient. As mentioned earlier patient centered care is all about interactions. The relationships between health care providers and the patients, the administration and the health care provider. It is not about new models or new techniques. With emotional intelligence being a social intelligence, health care centers are exploring on how they can apply its concepts. Emotional intelligence then proves to be important in the medical field. It is important for delivering patient centered care directly or indirectly and practicing effectively. How does emotional intelligence apply in health care? How do health care professionals use it to improve performance? Should it be used as a measure when recruiting professionals? How it might impact on issues of job satisfaction? These are the questions that am going to answer in these essay. Studies and findings Empirical studies has been done in health care settings. They suggested that success in life depends more on ones capability to understand and control emotions more than their intelligent quotient. It is viewed to be a personality characteristics which is fixed and stable making it measurable through self-administered questionnaire which have minimal manipulations. Some view it as being dynamic personal quality which is measured by using maximal performance measurements which quantifies the exact performance for example instead of asking a health care provider what he or she would do in a certain situation he or she is provided with the situation to act on. Matthew et al. suggests that different measures of emotional intelligent quantifies different attributes and the correspondences among these different scales of measures have shown very low correlation which is unexpected. Perez et al. has suggested that emotional intelligent trait instruments measures emotional self-efficacy whil e the emotional intelligent ability instruments measures the cognitive ability. Health care setting Emotional intelligence in health care. Recently there has been increased discussions on emotional intelligence in health care literature. The references of these claims are mostly on unsubstantiated claims on theoretical necessity of emotional intelligence and the assumption that its quality can be improved or altered although there has been growing evidence that emotional intelligence influences organizational success and patients outcomes. For us to understand the importance of emotional intelligence in the health care sector, there are four questions that we will ask ourselves and answer. How does emotional intelligence in health care providers impact on patient centered care, satisfaction of the patient and quality patient care? How does emotional intelligence have an impact on job performance and satisfaction? Can emotional intelligence be trained to patients? If yes will it have an impact on personal and/or patient centered outcomes? Should measurements of emotional intelligence be used as a criteria for selection and recruitment process for health care providers and students? Emotional intelligence and patient care. Most complains about health care providers is on poor communication and rarely on clinical competence. In health care centers improving on communication is one of the key interests in practice and policy. The models of emotional intelligence has clearly emphasized on importance of understanding and controlling ones and others emotions so as to adapt to environment. In patients assessment 98% of the diagnosis are from history taking. A procedure that involves listening and reading all clues given by the patient. The differences in emotional intelligence may be the reasons as to why some practitioners appears to be delivering patient centered care more than others. Discriminating patients emotions has a large impact on assessment, history taking and diagnosis of the patient. An example, a patient has a bad reaction to anesthetic. Nurse A, who is attending the patient rushes in, she is well trained so she does all that is required to reverse the allergic reaction to the anesthetic witho ut talking to the patient and the family. The patient recovers and the patients and family anxiety is relieved. Lets assume Nurse B was on call that day. She rushes in the patients room after the alarm on the emergence. The first thing she does is comfort the patient and the family. All will be well, this is normal. She comforts and calms the patient as she takes the rightful measures to reverse the reaction although he or she is not in much hurry as Nurse A. the results from the two patients will be similar they will get their symptoms reversed but the families and patient will have had different experiences. When one can understand other peoples emotions this makes the person empathetic. Health care providers who treat their patients with compassion and empathy have a huge rule in the patients outcomes. Empathetic physicians improves satisfaction of the patient aids patients adherence to treatment. It also reduces the chances of medical errors. Physicians with these qualities are better placed with patients with chronic illnesses and also at trauma units. Inappropriate behavior exhibited by health care workers is disruptive not only to the environment but patients outcome. Therefore the ability to read, understand and manage patients feelings/emotions is very important as it brings about patient centered care, satisfaction of the patient, it improves on the relationship between a patient and a professional and also it has a positive impact on concordance and most importantly the patient outcome. Emotional Intelligence and Job Satisfaction Emotional intelligence was defined as ability to recognize, understand, express verbal or non-verbal emotion either generated by oneself or by others. Have a higher emotional intelligence would impact positively on the health care professional performance and satisfaction in their jobs. For example there can be tension / pressure from the subsystems may it be the macro (can be the administration, colleagues) or the micro, which is composed of the patient and the family of the patient. This can cause anger and frustrations to these health care providers. For example when the hospital is understaffed that lengthens the shifts and increases the workload this frustrates the staff or when the patient is so ungrateful, keeps abusing the health care provider, is uncooperative. This will really stress out the professional but being able to recognize, understand and manage these emotions. The health care provider will only be faced by very few incidences of work related stresses. The health c are providers who has little/no stress, are less burnt out and are disillusioned they are able to communicate effectively with patients, form good and professional patient-worker relationship and by the end of it all they are able to achieve a patient centered care. A research has been done to explain the relationship between stress and burn out in health care providers and the emotional intelligence. There was no direct link between the two but it showed that nurses with a higher job experience has higher levels of emotional intelligence. Lower emotional intelligence was seen in dental students. From all the above it is evident that for effective communication which will later on result in rightful diagnosis, patients cooperation, all leading to improved quality care, patient centered care. No doubts it is of significant in the medical field. Training and Health Care Curriculae In nursing management literature they are so enthusiastic on the idea that emotionally intelligent can be trained and improved in individuals. It is imagined that with increased emotional intelligence it will directly increase the quality of patient care, have improved functioning professionals and effective management. The problem with this theory is its assessment. Assessing training. Different scholars different findings. Some suggests that after training there will be demonstration of competence while others describe personality characteristics which are difficult to change. It is also not clear whether the changes after training can be detected over a span of time. All is not lost there are formal programs aimed at improving and evaluating emotional intelligence in the health sector. Wagner et al administered a self-report trait of emotional intelligent to medical students who were later on followed up for two to three years. There was a significant change showing that emotional can be taught to our health care providers. They can be taught on patient centered care, ways of improving it. How to focus on a patient as a whole and also good communication skills. Health care centers should provide their staff with training programs. For these programs to be effective they should have a combination of behavioral assessment and service excellence principles which will provide the staff with an insight of their own behavioral characteristics which will specifically include the health care emotional intelligence. This will be a mirror where they see their faults and correct on them. For patient centered care, improved quality of patient care, patients needs satisfaction it is really important to have a high emotional intelligence which we have seen can be trained and improved. A Behavioral Construct used during training Select International Experiences partnering with Healthcare Organization came up with a behavioral construct whose aims are directed at patient centered care. The score of the health care provider where high or low does not mater significantly. What is of importance is their abilities to see and understand their behavioral/ character make up and be able to adapt as expected/accordingly. It is made up of four cores: compassion, awareness, regulation and emotional intelligence. Our focus is on emotional intelligence. How does this training improve on it? This tests ones ability to focus socially, on social needs and reactions. For example while performing a procedure does one get so involved in the procedure that they forget to check the patients reactions or even the colleagues reactions. The test can also prove that this is the kind of person who read other peoples reactions, emotions which gives him/her information and by the end of the procedure one achieves positive outcome. The h ealth care provider who scores low it shows that he/she focusses more on factual and less on social aspects. This tests aims at rectifying this by making the professional acquire a habit of assessing both the patient and the colleagues reactions and acting accordingly. These helps with improving the emotional intelligence hence having a patient centered care. Recruitment In many cases we have heard that medical courses are more of a calling and not a profession. There has been so many debates on who is the right student to be enrolled in medical schools. There has been so many debates and discussions around that subject. Many schools enroll those who are capable of finishing the course based on their intelligent quotient. They are also selected on the argument that on completion they will be able to deliver quality care to the patients. There have been so many authors discarding the fact that emotional intelligence is of importance in job selection and job performance. Despite all this there are different views especially in nursing literature which sees the value of enrolling emotionally intelligent patients. There is a problem in identify the students with high emotional intelligence as all those who apply have high academic scores. To make this possible a test should be given to all the applicants which will prove students orientation towards soci al sciences and humanities. Limitations Emotional intelligence has been associated with patients needs satisfaction, patient centered care, and improved quality of care to patients. Despite all these positive outcomes there are still some uncertainties about it for example what do we measure when we measure emotional intelligence? When should we measure emotional intelligence and how should it be measured? Do levels of emotional intelligence of health professionals have a direct impact on the outcomes of the patient? Does emotional intelligence have an impact on health care professionals and their working environment? To what extent can emotional intelligence be developed or taught? These are grey areas when it comes to emotional intelligences. Some of the questions are still being researched on. Conclusion How does emotional intelligence apply in health care? How do health care professionals use it to improve performance? Should it be used as a measure when recruiting professionals? How it might impact on issues of job satisfaction? Those were the questions that the essay targeted on answering. 1) From the essay it is so clear that emotional intelligence has a very significant role in the health care sector. We have seen that if a provider has a good understanding of their behaviors and that of others they can easily adopt specific behaviors that will cause an improvement in the interaction of patients and colleagues. When this is made possible the patient centered care is achieved, the patient needs are satisfied, there is a positive impact on patients outcome, the patient professional relationship is enhanced and made satisfying. 2) The other question was on performance and satisfaction. I explained clearly that when one is able to cope with woke related frustrations they do not get work related stress or burn outs. This enables them to work sufficiently hence performing well at what they do and also they get satisfaction of what they do. 3) It has also been seen the need to recruit those students that are emotionally intelligent. This is necessary for all the reasons/ benefits I have listed above of emotional intelligence in the health care sector. From all the above it has shown how and why emotional intelligence is important to both the patient and the professional. References Yvonne F,. Ian, S,. 2007, journal of the royal society of medicine, emotional intelligence and patient centered care. Codier E, et al. 2008, Nursing Administration Guideline, measuring the emotional intelligence of clinical staff nurses Guleryuz G, et al.2008, International Journal for Nurses, the mediating effect of job satisfaction between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment of nurses. 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