Nurses' experiences of providing emotional intelligence-based nursing care: a hermeneutic phenomenological study

Sakineh Poorhosein Fookolaee; Fateme Hadadian; Aram Feizi; Leila Jouybari

doi:10.1186/s12912-025-03361-w

Nurses' experiences of providing emotional intelligence-based nursing care: a hermeneutic phenomenological study

BMC Nurs. 2025 Aug 4;24(1):1013. doi: 10.1186/s12912-025-03361-w.

Authors

Sakineh Poorhosein Fookolaee¹, Fateme Hadadian², Aram Feizi³, Leila Jouybari⁴

Affiliations

¹ Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran.
² Faculty Member, Nursing and Midwifery School, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
³ Patient Safety Research Center, Clinical Research institute, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran. aramfeizi@umsu.ac.ir.
⁴ Nursing Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran. Jouybari@goums.ac.ir.

Abstract

Background: Emotional Intelligence-Based Nursing Care refers to the ability of nurses to manage their emotions, establish effective communication, and respond to the physical and psychological needs of patients. This hermeneutic phenomenological study investigated the experiences of nurses in delivering Emotional Intelligence-Based Nursing Care.

Methods: This hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted from April 2023 to September 2024, involving the participation of eight nurses working in intensive care, emergency, and internal medicine departments of educational hospitals. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews served as the primary data collection tool. Purposeful sampling was employed to select nurses with substantial experience in providing Emotional Intelligence-Based Nursing Care. The study aims to elucidate nurses' lived experiences in delivering this type of care, with the central research question being: "What are nurses' lived experiences of providing Emotional Intelligence-Based Nursing Care?" For data analysis, Van Manen's interpretive phenomenology approach was utilized. To ensure the trustworthiness of the research findings, the criteria of credibility, dependability, transferability, and confirmability were applied.

Results: The data analysis revealed three main themes-'compassionate care,' 'professional care,' and 'emotional competence'-along with 13 sub-themes: 'empathetic understanding,' 'human-centered perspective,' 'interactive care,' 'sense of satisfaction,' 'trust-building,' 'professional development,' 'spirituality,' 'self-control,' 'conflict management,' 'adaptive interaction,' 'clarification,' 'situational decision-making,' and 'continuous monitoring.'

Conclusions: The findings indicate that nurses, by employing emotional skills and empathy, have enhanced the patient experience and improved the quality of nursing care. These results can provide a basis for developing educational programs and enhancing nursing performance across various hospital departments.

Clinical trial number: Not applicable.

Keywords: Adaptation; Communication; Emotional intelligence; Empathy; Hermeneutics; Nurses; Nursing care; Psychological.