Iran Journal of Nursing

Mendeley  

Zotero  

Rezagholi P, Foroughi P, Foroughi A, Shahsawari S. The Association of Emotional Intelligence and Job Satisfaction in Operating Room Technologists. IJN 2019; 32 (121) :82-93
URL: http://ijn.iums.ac.ir/article-1-3104-en.html

Background & Aims: Occupational satisfaction is one of the most important and effective factors for the increase in organizational productivity. In addition, emotional intelligence is a series of skills that increase a person’s ability to face environmental pressures. Given the effect of emotional intelligence on individual psychological health, and with regard to the role of occupational satisfaction on the quality of services provided by operating room technicians, this study aimed to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence and occupational satisfaction in operating room technicians.
Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study was performed on all operating room technicians in hospitals of Sanandaj, Iran (n=110) were selected by census sampling in 2016, 10 of whom were excluded from the research due to a work experience less than one year. The inclusion criteria were a minimum work experience of one year, lack of chronic psychological diseases, lack of drug use, and no severe crises such as the death of first-degree family members, divorce, bankruptcy, and loss of property in the last six months. Data were collected using a demographic characteristics questionnaire (e.g., gender, marital status, education, income level, type of employment, number of children, age, work shift, and work experience), Sibriashring emotional intelligence questionnaire (including self-awareness, self-control, social awareness, social skills, and self-motivation), and Spector job satisfaction survey (nine dimensions of pay, promotion, supervision, benefits, contingent rewards, operating procedures, co-workers, nature of work and communication). In addition, data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 using Pearson’s correlation coefficient, independent t-test, and one-way analysis of variance.
Results: About 62% of the participants were female and the rest (38%) were male. In terms of marital status, 34% of the subjects were single and 66% were married. In addition, the majority of the participants were below 30 years and had a BSc. According to the results, there was no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and occupational satisfaction (P>0.05). On the other hand, a significant correlation was observed between the social skills of emotional intelligence and dimensions of promotion, supervision, and communication. In this regard, the relationship with promotion and supervision was reverse, while it was direct with communication. In addition, a significant correlation was observed between the social awareness dimension of emotional intelligence with the subscales of contingent rewards and communication, which was direct regarding the latter but poor and reverse in terms of the former. Moreover, we detected a poor, direct, and significant association between the self-awareness dimension of emotional intelligence and the total score of occupational satisfaction. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between self-motivation and total occupational satisfaction and the dimensions of contingent rewards and communications. In this regard, the relationship was poor and direct with total occupational satisfaction and contingent rewards. In addition, we found a poor, reverse, and significant relationship between the self-control dimension of emotional intelligence and dimensions of benefits, co-workers, and communication. Moreover, the total emotional intelligence had a significant correlation with the dimensions of promotion, benefits, and communication, which was poor and reverse with communication, reverse with benefits, and direct with communication. The mean emotional intelligence was 112, which demonstrated the favorable level of emotional intelligence of the participants. Moreover, the mean occupational satisfaction was 121.5, which was below moderate.
Conclusion: According to the results of the study, the occupational satisfaction of operating room technicians was significantly lower than moderate. Overall, occupational satisfaction is affected by various factors, which change depending on time, location, and social situations. It seems that social, economic, and cultural situations of a society significantly determine the factors affecting occupational satisfaction. The occupational satisfaction of operating room technicians affects their work quality. Therefore, officials should pay more attention to this issue by holding educational workshops and courses to increase the occupational satisfaction of operating room technicians. Given the high workload of these individuals, researchers had limited time for filling the questionnaires, which was resolved by referring to the participants in evening and night shifts and on holidays when they had a lower workload. The researchers referred to the operating room to fill the questionnaire. Given the rapid growth of technology and advances in the field of health sciences, it is necessary to conduct a similar study with more up-to-date tools. The results of the present study can be presented to the officials of the University Educational and Medical Center in order to find a solution or design interventions to increase the welfare facilities in the workplace and provide appropriate promotions and favorable working environment conditions to improve the job satisfaction of operating room technicians.