The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Communicating

Communicating involves nonverbal and verbal actions and behaviours where a shared meaning is created between two people and the intended message has been correctly deciphered by the receiver according to Higgs et al. Communicating within a health care environment is a very important factor in terms of efficiently caring for clients and creating an optimistic outlook. This is evident as most complaints and complications relate to poor communication within a workplace. Higgs et al. states that three of the key communication approaches include self awareness, empathy and emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence, one of the key approaches to communication in a health care setting, is a fundamental part of communication. Intelligence was often associated with performance in IQ tests but it has recently been discovered that it is only one of the seven types of intelligences in McQueen’s study . Emotional intelligence is also one of the seven types of intelligences and can be broken into four branches according to Reilly . These four branches include: emotional perception and expression, emotional facilitation of thought, emotional understanding and emotional management. With good skills in these branches, an individual can identify how to appropriately communicate in a given situation. Without these skills, inappropriate communication will go unnoticed and may continue to cause complications. Overall the goal to achieve in health care environment is to create a successful therapeutic relationship. This involves placing the client’s needs first and where the professional aims to create a positive change in a client.

Emotional perception and expression are important in emotional intelligence according to Reilly (. In a therapeutic relationship a professional needs to be aware of their emotions and express them accordingly with the guidance of the clients emotions in such things as facial expression and voice tone to be able to effectively communicate, keeping

References: Cadman, C & Brewer, J 2001, ‘Emotional Intelligence: a vital prerequisite for recruitment in nursing’, Journal of Nursing Management, vol. 9, pp. 321-324. Higgs, J, Ajjawi, R, McAllister, L, Trede, F, Loftus, S, 2008, Communicating in the Health Sciences, 2nd ed, Oxford University Press, Oxford. McQueen, ACH 2004, ‘Emotional intelligence in nursing work’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 101-108. O 'Connell, E 2008, ‘Therapeutic relationships in critical care nursing: a reflection on practice’, British Association of Critical Care Nurses, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 138-143. Reilly, P 2005, Teaching Law Students How to Feel: Using Negotiations Training to Increase Emotional Intelligence, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 301-314.