The Impact of Perceived Emotional Intelligence on Occupational Stress Among Nurses: Empirical Evidence From a Saudi Health Cluster

Abstract

Background: Occupational stress is a significant challenge for healthcare systems worldwide. It compromises the quality of healthcare and jeopardizes patient safety. Globally, the estimated economic impact of occupational stress in the healthcare system ranges from US $221.13 million to US $187 billion. Emotional intelligence has been recognized as a behavioral buffer against occupational stress. Hence, this study investigated whether nurses’ perceptions of emotional intelligence impact their self-perceived occupational stress.

Design: A predictive correlational design was utilized.

Method: A prior power analysis using G ∗ Power 3.1 was conducted. A convenience sample of 734 nurses was recruited from Taif Health Cluster. Data were coded and analyzed using IBM® SPSS® Statistics for Windows v.25. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used. A hierarchical regression technique was used. The level of significance was established at p < 0.05. The process of data collection started at August 2022 and continued through October 2022.

Results: The results indicated that nurses’ age and working area predicted occupational stress perceptions in the first model (β = −0.28 and β = 0.21, p = 0.001, respectively). The second model showed a significant improvement (ΔF(7,727) = 162.35, p < 0.000, ΔR² = 0.226) and indicated a negative correlation between nurses’ perceptions of emotional intelligence and occupational stress (β = −0.45, t = −12.8, p < 0.000). The nurses’ sociodemographic characteristics in the first model explained 2.4% of the variance. The second model represented 25.0% of the variance when nurses’ emotional intelligence perception was included.

Conclusion: Our study shows a novel framework that indicates a positive perceived effect of emotional intelligence on nurses’ perceptions of occupational stress in Saudi Arabia. Our findings propose that emotional intelligence is a significantly effective mechanism against occupational stress.