The Emotional Intelligence, Occupational Stress, and Coping Characteristics by Years of Nursing Experiences of Newly Hired Oncology Nurses.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the study was to compare and analyze the emotional intelligence, occupational stress, and coping characteristics of three groups of newly hired oncology nurses.

METHODS

Data for this secondary analysis were collected from a larger study of 114 newly hired nurses at a cancer center in the Northeastern United States. Survey data were collected using the EQi-2.0™, the Nursing Stress Scale, and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. Dimensions of study measures were analyzed based on new graduates, 1-5 years, and >5 years of nursing experience. Analysis of variance was conducted among the three groups followed by Tukey pairwise comparisons analysis when = 0.05.

RESULTS

New graduates scored significantly lower on the self-expression dimension (mean = 96.88; standard deviation [SD] = 13.27) than nurses with >5 years nursing experience (mean = 106.12; SD 15.02) ( = 0.04), and the subdimension, assertiveness (mean = 94.73; SD = 13.87) compared to nurses with >5-year nursing experience (mean = 103.94; SD = 14.86) ( = 0.03). Significantly higher sources of stress for new graduates were death and dying (mean = 16.45; SD = 3.37), and for the associations between the three nursing groups ( = 0.001). New graduate nurses used the problem-focused coping strategy of accepting responsibility (mean = 14.06; SD = 7.28) significantly ( = 0.006) more often than nurses with >5-year experience (mean = 8.54; SD = 4.25), and planful problem solving (mean = 16.76; SD = 5.27) significantly less often ( =.001) than nurses with 1-5-year experiences (mean = 20.12; SD = 7.31).

CONCLUSIONS

Dimension scores highlight the characteristics of nurses with varying levels of nursing experience onboarding at the same time. Findings may inform model-development for improving nurse-recruitment practices and retention strategies.