Relationship emotional intelligence with happiness and job burnout in nurses who work in COVID-19 wards

Nurses are known as the first line of fighting the COVID-19 disease in the world. The present study was conducted to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence, happiness and burnout of nurses working in the COVID-19 care wards.

In this cross-sectional study, with the random sampling method, the number of 347 nurses working in teaching hospitals of Hamadan city were selected and studied in 2022. Data collection tools included demographic characteristics checklist, Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaires, Oxford Happiness Inventory, and Goleman emotional intelligence. The correlation between the components of happiness and emotional intelligence was determined using the Pearson correlation coefficient test. Predictors of happiness were determined using a linear regression model. Data were analyzed using Stata software version 14.  The significance level was considered less than 0.05.

The majority of nurses were female (62.54%), with the mean age of 31.80±6.77 years. There was an inverse and significant correlation between the job burnout and happiness (r=0.002, p=-0.165), however there was a direct and significant correlation between emotional intelligence and happiness (r=0.183, P<001). The results showed that happiness was increased by 0.49 and 0.35 for each unit increase in social skill score and emotional exhaustion score, respectively (P<0.001). Finally, for each unit increase in individual failure score, the happiness score was 0.32 increased (P<0.001).

Considering the inverse relationship between job burnout and happiness and the direct relationship between emotional intelligence and happiness in nurses, it is possible to prevent the adverse effects of negative emotions felt at work and job burnout in nurses by holding emotional intelligence training workshops and also promoting happiness with happy programs.