The Role of Emotional Intelligence: A Double-Edged Sword - Essay Example

            Leadership is believed to be an art and science of influence. The leading figures are believed to be primarily responsible for bringing change in society (Cyert, 1990). The leaders do not always have the luxury and option to demonstrate his or her true emotions and feelings. However, in most cases, they have to use socially acceptable and desirable emotions in order to keep their position intact. The leader is a leader until he or she has followers and therefore, the leading person has to understand the emotions of the public and use them to his or her advantage. The notion of emotional intelligence is based on one’s ability to understand and comprehend his or her emotions whereas he or she should also have a fair bit of idea about others’ emotional state as well. Furthermore, the concept and the most important construct in healthcare cannot be practiced without building social linkages with patients (Salovey & Mayer, 1989).

            The application of emotional intelligence is reduced to the responsibility of medics to provide an adequate level of motivation to the patients so that their recovery process can be expedited. The physiological illnesses are believed to be the mere manifestation of psychological ones (Peck, 2008) and therefore, the nurses are suggested to provide an emotional antidote in order to pull up the suffering humans.

Additionally, the nursing staff should bear in mind that the pain of the patients should be given to them at the end of the day. The medical staff must remain in control of the empathy dimension of emotional intelligence. The nurses must not allow the patients’ state to influence their professional dedication and competencies. Emotional intelligence should and must be practiced within professional limitations (Mann, 2005).

Furthermore, the emotions at the workplace should be fabricated and demonstrated artificially and from the inside, a nurse should remain committed to her professional duties and responsibilities only. In this manner, she is going to perform admirably and effectively. According to recent research, all sorts of emotions are notorious for causing hindrance in one’s ability and efficacy to do the assigned job. The medical practitioners are trained to consider pain and death as part of the profession and because of this reason, they are taught to give the pain to the sufferer and move on to the next patient.

Medical professionals are supposed and encouraged to provide their caring services to a large number of patients and they cannot waste time grieving about one death when indeed they can delay another one from happening. The medical professionals are guided not to waste energy in saddening about the dead but to divert energies towards saving a living one. The significant level of care fatigue is positively associated with the presence of psychological issues and therefore, the developed nations are getting more and more interested in helping the nurses in getting over a loss and moving on.

But, when it is practiced without reasonable cause then, it can result in increasing care fatigue in nurses while the unmanaged social relations can result in compromising of professional integrity of nursing professionals. Thusly, too much emotional intelligence is destructive whereas, without its modest presence, the nursing professional will lose its meaning and consequently will become a meaningless and soulless practice.

The idea of emotional intelligence is based on social exchange theory because emotions are known to be shared when two or more people discuss their thoughts with one and another. Social relations are the only assumed way to cross-communicate emotions and feelings. Yet, too much of these attributes may become destructive and therefore, the medics are recommended to exhibit socially acceptable and desirable emotions at the workplace. Secondly, it is better to fabricate emotions without internalization of them, as it will assist the professionals in demonstrating needed emotions without experiencing care fatigue that may be caused due to the presence and expression of legitimate emotions.