The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Critical Thinking Style with Clinical Decision-making with the Mediation of Self-efficacy Beliefs and Self-confidence in the Nursing Staff of Rasht Hospitals

 Nurses should be able to make accurate and appropriate clinical judgments about the health status of patients by combining their technical skills and professional knowledge. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence and critical thinking style in clinical decision-making with the mediation of self-efficacy beliefs and self-confidence in the nursing staff of Rasht hospitals.

 This descriptive-correlational study was conducted using the structural equation model with the participation of 364 nurses of Intensive care units in Rasht hospitals. The sampling method was random cluster sampling. Data was collected using questionnaires including nurses' clinical decision making, emotional intelligence, self-efficacy in clinical practice, critical thinking style, and self-confidence. The structural equation modeling method used for data analysis by AMOS-22 software.

 Findings were the total path coefficient (sum of direct and indirect path coefficients) between emotional intelligence and clinical decision-making pattern (P<0.001, β=0.442), between critical thinking style and clinical decision-making pattern (P<0.001, β=0.335), between self-efficacy beliefs and clinical decision-making pattern (P<0.001, β=0.325), between self-confidence and clinical decision-making pattern (P<0.001, β=0.243) and the indirect effect between emotional intelligence (P<0.001, β=0.154), and critical thinking style (P<0.001, β=0.188) on the pattern of positive clinical decision-making and It was meaningful. Emotional intelligence, critical thinking, self-efficacy beliefs and self-confidence explain a total of 59% of the variance of the decision-making pattern in nurses.

 The study showed that self-efficacy beliefs and self-confidence mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and critical thinking style with clinical decision-making among Rasht hospitals' nursing staff. Self-efficacy beliefs and self-confidence increased the relationship between emotional intelligence and critical thinking style with clinical decision-making.