The relationship between emotional intelligence and disaster response self-efficacy in nurses

This research was made in order to bring the relationship between the emotional intelligence levels and the disaster response self-efficacy levels of nurses to the literature. The population of the research consisted of a total of 1079 nurses, 390 nurses of whom worked at Istanbul Bezmiâlem Vakıf University and 689 nurses of whom worked at Istanbul UMKE and the sample consisted of 565 nurses who agreed to participate in the research. As data collection tools, 14-item "Sociodemographic Information Form", 41-item "Revised Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale" and 19- item "Disaster Response Self-Efficacy Scale" were applied. Number/percentage, mean, Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney U, One-Way ANOVA, Kruskal Wallis, correlation and regression analysis were used in the analysis of the data. 66.7% (n=377) of the study group was female and 33.3% (n=188) was male. 25.7% (n=145) of the nurses were under the age of 24, 39.8% (n=225) were between the ages of 25-34, and 34.5% (n=195) were aged 35 and over. 56.5% (n=319) of the nurses were married and 43.5% (n=246) were single. While 39.8% (n=225) of the nurses had no children, 34.7% (n=196) had one child and 25.5% (n=144) had two or more children. 66.4% (n=375) of the nurses have nuclear families and 33.6% (n=190) have extended families. The income of 28.7% (n=162) of the nurses is more than the outgoings, the income of 38.9% (n=220) is equal to the outgoings, and the income of 32.4% (n=183) is less than the outgoings. 25.0% (n=141) of the nurses graduated from high school, 11.3% (n=64) had an associate degree, 41.4% (n=234) of nurses had a bachelor's degree, 14.7% (n=83) had a master's degree and 7.6% (n=43) had a doctorate degree. 88.1% of nurses (n=498) experienced at least one disaster and 79.8% (n=451) served in at least one disaster. The findings of the study showed that there was no significant relationship between the MSEIS and DRSES sub-dimensions and total score averages according to the nurses' age, gender, marital status, family type, income status and previous disaster experience (p>0.05). It was determined that there was a significant relationship (p<0.05) between the MSEIS and DRSES sub-dimensions and total score averages according to educational status, institution of worked, unit of worked, length of service and take charge in disaster. A statistically significant difference was found between the number of children and the mean score of the total MSEIS (p<0.05). On the other hand, while there was no significant relationship between the MSEIS and DRSES scores according to the disaster experience, a significant relationship was observed according to the status of taking part in the disaster (p<0.05). As a result of the correlation and regression analysis, it was found that there is a positive and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and disaster response self-efficacy (r=0.885, p<0.05) and the emotional intelligence scale had a positive and significant effect on disaster response self-efficacy (β =1.660, p<0.05). In line with these results; nurses with low emotional intelligence level and disaster response self-efficacy level should be considered as the group that needs improvement in this area. It is recommended to support nurses' postgraduate education, to develop training and course programs, to ensure that disaster nursing is a private branch, to create work programs that will allow nurses working in the emergency and other units of the hospital to gain skills and clinical experience, to enable nurses to gain experience by organizing exercises, and to support NGO and volunteer services. For future research, it is recommended to investigate emotional intelligence and disaster response self-efficacy in nurses repeatedly on different universes and samples, and to determine the benefits of developing emotional intelligence and disaster response self-efficacy in nurses.