Reference no: EM131555485

YOU NEED A POSITIVE COMMENT BASED IN THIS ARGUMENT..bETWEEN 150-200 WORDS

Emotional intelligence is the intersection of thinking and emotion. Skill building and training in positive thinking and a focus on positive emotions assist nurses to better listen, encourage, motivate, and create connections (Huber, 2014). Having self awareness simply means that you understand you. You have an awareness of what makes you tick as well as what makes your heart sing or sink.

When you know your strengths and weaknesses as a person, you can then start to understand why you feel the way you do and what makes you feel the way you feel. When you can learn to understand your own emotions, as well as how to control them, you can identify their impact to you and those in your team (Candy, 2016).

I have a personal example of this from a current situation that I am facing on my job in which I am the program manager. In the last two months I have had two of my staff to move from our area. Recently, one of the two Nurses I have left has decided to transfer to another clinic to "work less days".

She is fully aware that this will only leave our program with one nurse other than myself. This nurse shared this information to me openly in front other team members (Charge nurse, Social worker, dietician, secretary). It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I politely said ok, I want you to do what is going to make you happy and work for your family. Now the other team members didn't take this news so calmly.

What I have learned through the years from trial and error is that as the Leader I cannot allow my feelings to control my behavior. Deep down inside I wanted to scream because it takes 6 months for a new nurse to take call and train patients and I'm in school. To this day my staff are still not aware of how I really feel about the situation. As the leader of our program I could not afford to display the heart drop in my heart that I felt deep down inside because I didn't want to envoke uneccessary anxiety on them.

Surprisingly they have come to privately stating how surprised they were that I was able to remain so calm after hearing that another nurse was leaving. Of course after hearing that I could only say "Thank you Lord" because that is an area that I have really had to seek God's help with.

Candy, L (2016). Emotional Intelligence Theory: Highlighting and Developing Leadership Skills.
Huber, D (2014). Leadership & Nursing Care Management, 5th Edition.