Conflicts and Emotional Intelligence in a Hospital Work Environment

Introduction: The complexity of health care, contribute to conflicts, while emotional intelligence is a skill that can contribute to the resolve of these conflicts Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the management of conflicts between health professionals and the role of Emotional Intelligence in them. Material-Method: A survey was conducted with the use of a self-report questionnaire on health professionals of the Nursing Unit. The final sample of the survey was 153 people out of 220, with a response rate of 70%. The statistical analysis was performed with the statistical program S.P.S.S. 25. Results: Health professionals regardless of specialty believe that communication problems lead to moderate conflicts. No difference was found between the views of the specialties of the sample and the causes of conflicts related to job expectations, nor between the occupations of the health professionals in terms of conflict management strategies, with the exception of compromise. It is also not selected by the majority of the sample the claim of victory or the accepting the other's wish, while 40% of administrators choose to compromise, compared to the lower percentages of other occupational groups (p = 0.049). The analysis of the correlation between the Emotional Intelligence of health professionals and the causes of conflict showed that as the Emotional Intelligence of physicians and administrators increases, their belief that orders from more than one person cause conflicts decreases (r = -0.049, p and r = -0.561, p = 0.010). Also, as the Emotional Intelligence of doctors increases, so does the belief that the unfair distribution of resources leads to conflicts (r = 0.386, p = 0.035). Conclusions: Conflicts in the hospital environment are a condition that cannot be easily eliminated due to the specificity and burden of the environment.

Keywords: conflicts, emotional intelligence, satisfaction, health professionals