Nurses’ Emotional Intelligence and Stress at Workplace during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Egypt

Abstract

COVID-19 has brought much stress to healthcare workers in globe. Nursing is one of the main occupations with a high level of stress. This paper aims to examine the association between nurses’ emotional intelligence (EI) and stress at workplace during COVID-19 pandemic. The four domains of EI (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relation management) were linked to nurses’ stress at workplace. Data were collected from 268 nurses at Egyptian healthcare institutions, between August and December 2020. The research findings indicated that Egyptian nurses show a moderate level of EI competencies, and experience a high level of stress at workplace, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A negative relationship between each of the four components that define EI and nurses’ stress and workplace was also existed. Research implications and directions for future research are presented.