Investigating the Relationship between Demographic Variables And Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual Health in the Nurses Working in the Teaching Hospitals of Ilam

Abstract

Introduction: There is a close relationship between a nurse’sinherent spirituality and the tendency to
provide spiritual care. This means that anurse with stronger inherent spirituality provides more spiritual
care to patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between demographic variables
and emotional intelligence and spiritual health in the nurses working in the teaching hospitals of Ilam city.
Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive-analytical study onthe nurses working in the teaching
hospitals ofIlam. The research sample included all the nurses of teaching hospitals ofIlamcity, who were
selected by census. The research instrument includedthree questionnaires;a demographic questionnaire (age,
gender, marital status, work experience, and employment status), a 20-item spiritual health questionnaire, and
the 90-item standard Barquestionnaire for emotional intelligence. The spiritual health questionnaire, already
validated by Tavan et al.,included 20 questions infour dimensions (five questions for each of contemplation,
beliefs, morality, and philosophy/lifestyledimensions). Finally, the data was entered into and analyzed by
SPSS version 19 software.
Results: This descriptive study was conducted on 130 nurses working in the teaching hospitals of Ilam. Of
these, 79 (60.8%) and 51 (39.2%) were males and females, respectively. The mean spiritual health scores
were obtained as 23.72, 21.98, 22.68, and 22.47 in the contemplation, beliefs, morality, and philosophy/
lifestyledimensions, respectively, with the total score of 90.86. The total score of emotional intelligence
was 313.34. Among the nurses, 7 (5.4%), 115 (88.5%), and 8 (6.2%) had moderate, high, and very high
emotional intelligence, respectively.
Conclusion: The nurses’ spiritual health was at the moderate-high level for all the participants, and it can be
promoted by implementing education programs.