The Effect of Nurse’s Emotional Intelligence and Communication Competency on Nursing Performance

Abstract

This study was attempted to provide basic data for preparing measures to enhance nursing performance by understanding the correlations of emotional intelligence and communication competency of nurses with their nursing performance and identifying the factors affecting nursing performance. The duration of data collection was from October 1 through October 10, 2016. The subjects of the study were 147 general nurses with a career over three months, who provided nursing services for patients directly in a university hospital located in Gyeonggi-do, and a data analysis was conducted with the questionnaires. This study used a tool adopted by Hwang, Pil-ju (2007) from Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) developed by Wong and Law (2002) for emotional intelligence: Global Interpersonal Communication Competency Scale (GICC) developed by Hur, Gyeong-ho (2003) for communication competency: and the tool developed by Ko, Yu-kyung et al. (2007) for nursing performance. For analysis method, this study analyzed the collected data, using SPSS 23.0 with descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis in the Enter method and presented the results. The results of this study are as follows. 1. The average of emotional intelligence of the subjects of the study was 3.51±0.32 points: that of communication competency, 3.48±0.39: and that of nursing performance, 3.59±0.42. 2. For the difference in nursing performance, according to the general characteristics of the subjects of study, nurses under 25 had significantly higher nursing performance than those over 36 (F=9.451, p<.001). For the difference according to marital status, married nurses had significantly higher nursing performance than those unmarried (t=-2.837, p=.005). Nurses with a religion had significantly higher nursing performance (t=2.208, p=.029). In addition, nurses with a level of education over graduate school had significantly higher nursing performance than those with a level lower than that (F=6.312, p=.002). Nurses with a total clinical career over 10 years had significantly higher nursing performance (F=20.147, p<.001). 3. It turned out that there were statistically significant positive correlations between emotional intelligence and communication competency (r=.684, p<.001), between emotional intelligence and nursing performance (r=.653, p<.001), and between nursing performance and communication competency (r=.614, p<.001). 4. It turned out that the factors affecting nursing performance include emotional intelligence (β=.360, p<.001), communication competency (β=.315, p<.001) and total clinical career (β=.357, p<.001). The overall explanatory power of the model was 57.6%, and for the significance of the model, too, F value was statistically significant at 34.007 (p<.001). Of them, the factor that has the greatest impact on nursing performance was emotional intelligence. To sum up the above research results, since this study included nurses’personal variables only, in order to increase nurses’ nursing performance, it is important for nurses to control their emotions well and overcome difficulty when they face the difficulty, including environmental factor in the organization, and a time should be provided for nurses so that they can reflect on themselves. In addition, it would be necessary to develop various programs to enhance nurses’ emotional intelligence, and it would be necessary to seek a system for social support through which highly experienced nurses can continue their nursing service.

본 연구는 간호사들의 감성지능, 의사소통능력, 간호업무성과의 관계를 파악하고, 간호업무성과에 영향을 미치는 요인을 파악함으로써 간호업무성과를 향상시키기 위한 방안을 마련하는데 기초자료를 제공하기 위해 시도되었다. 자료수집기간은 2016년 10월 1일부터 10월 10일까지이며, 연구대상자는 경기도 소재 일개 대학병원에서 환자에게 직접 간호를 제공하는 3개월 근무경력이상인 일반간호사 156명을 대상으로 실시하였고 이중 최종 147명의 설문지에 대해 자료분석을 실시하였다. 감성지능 Wong과 Law(2002)이 개발한 WLEIS를 황필주(2007)가 번안한 도구를 사용하였고, 의사소통능력은 허경호(2003)가 개발한 GICC도구를, 간호업무성과는 고유경 등(2007)이 개발한 도구를 사용하였다. 수집된 자료분석 방법은 SPSS 23.0 프로그램을 이용하여 기술통계, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s 상관계수, 다중회귀분석으로 분석하였다. 본 연구의 결과는 다음과 같다. 1. 연구 대상자의 감성지능 평균은 3.51±0.32점, 의사소통능력 평균은 3.48±0.39점, 간호업무성과 평균은 3.59±0.42점이었다. 2. 연구 대상자의 일반적 특성에 따른 간호업무성과 차이는 나이가 36세 이상이 간호업무성과에 유의하게 높았으며(F=9.451, p<.001), 결혼에 있어서 미혼보다 기혼이 간호업무성과가 유의하게 높았으며(t=-2.837, p=.005), 종교가 있는 경우 간호업무성과가 유의하게 높았다(t=2.208, p=.029). 또한, 최종학력이 대학원 이상에서 그 이외 학력보다 유의하게 간호업무성과가 높았으며(F=6.312, p=.002), 임상 총 경력 10년 이상 대상자가 간호업무성과가 높게 나타났다(F=20.147, p<.001). 3. 연구대상자의 감성지능과 의사소통능력(r=.684, p<.001), 감성지능과 간호업무성과 (r=.653, p<.001). 간호업무성과와 의사소통 능력(r=.614, p<.001)간에 통계적으로 유의한 양의 상관관계가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 4. 연구대상자의 간호업무성과에 영향을 주는 요인으로는 감성지능(β=.360, p<.001), 의사소통능력(β=.315, p<.001), 임상 총 경력(β=.357, p<.001)이 유의한 것으로 나타났다. 전체적인 모형의 설명력은 57.6%며, 모형의 유의성 또한 F값이 34.007 (p<.001)으로 통계적으로 유의하였다. 그 중 간호업무성과에 가장 영향을 미치는 요인은 감성지능이었다. 이상의 연구결과를 종합해 볼 때, 간호사의 간호업무성과를 높이기 위해서는 간호사의 개인적 변인뿐 만 아니라, 조직 내 환경적 요인을 포함하여야 할 것이며,간호사들이 어려움에 직면하였을 때 자신의 감정을 잘 조절하고 효율적으로 극복해 나갈 수 있도록 하는 것이 중요하며 이를 위해 간호사 스스로 자기 성찰을 할 수 있는 시간이 제공되어야 할 것이다. 또한, 간호사의 감성지능 향상을 위한 다양한 프로그램 개발이 필요하며, 간호업무성과가 높은 고경력간호사들이 간호직을 지속할 수 있는 사회적 지원 체계가 모색되어야 할 것이다.