Job stress refers to three types of stress in the workplace, namely physical environment stress, role ambiguity stress and role conflict stress, which in general, provides a criterion for the overall stress of the workplace [4]. According to control-demand theory, job stress occurs when the level of psychological demands for work is high and control over work or decision making is low [5].
Burnout is a long-term stress response that is seen primarily among people who have face-to-face contact with others [6]. Job burnout syndrome includes emotional fatigue, depersonalization and decreased self-efficacy [7].
Benson defines emotional intelligence as the essential ability of individuals to succeed in aspects of personal and professional life. According to Barriabela, emotional intelligence increases people's potential for better adaptation, less stress, and better health. Emotional intelligence is an individual ability that is a component of personality traits and is often measured as self-report. This ability is effective in adaptation, success, growth of intelligence, self-management and emotions of others and in general in perceiving the emotions of individuals [17-19].
In a study, a significant relationship was observed between emotional fatigue, depersonalization and nurses' desire to leave the nursing profession; also, in this study, sub-scales of emotional intelligence significantly predicted the burnout of individuals in the research sample [20]. Another study found that emotional intelligence plays an important role in the formation of successful human relationships; therefore, emotional work plays an important role in nurse-patient therapeutic relationships, but in the long run can lead to burnout [22, 21].
Therefore, emotional intelligence is considered as a supportive factor against work pressures. Unhealthy job competitions are a large part of job pressures, the intensification and continuation of which leads to burnout. Therefore, emotional intelligence reduces the negative effects of job stress by managing employees' emotions and facilitating the exchange of positive emotions between them, making them resistant to premature burnout [25, 24].
The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence and burnout in hospital nurses in Hamadan.

 

A descriptive cross-sectional correlation study with random stratified sampling method, 205 nurses of intensive care units in the educational and health centers (Beheshti, Ekbatan, Behesht, Farshchian and Fatemiyeh) in Hamedan city in 2014 were conducted. Data was collected by questionnaire of Emotional Intelligence-Load, Philip L. Rice's Job Stress, and Meslach's Burnout Questionnaire.
Finally, the collected data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression tests with SPSS software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Ill., USA).

Special care nurses had a mean score of moderate emotional intelligence (233.13 ± 12.71) and the mean of occupational stress score (169.30±14.16) and the mean score of burnout components were emotional exhaustion (29.96±13.77) and personality deprivation (11.55±8.87) and personal capability (35.78 ± 11.85). Emotional intelligence with job stress (P=0.01, r=-0.28) also, the burnout components of emotional exhaustion (P=0.01, r=-0.44), personality depersonalization (P=0.01, r=-0.37) and personal adequacy (P=0.01, r=-0.37) had a reverse and significant relationship.
 

Findings showed that general emotional intelligence was inversely and significantly correlated with general job stress and components of physical condition and job interest (excluding interpersonal relationships). Also, the results of regression test showed that the components of independence, self-fulfillment and impulse control have a significant role in predicting job stress. Most nurses in intensive care units had a moderate mean job stress score, which is in line with the results of a study by Hosseini et al. on nurses' job stress [33].
Most nurses had a score of burnout based on severity in the moderate and high emotional fatigue component and most of them appeared moderate and high in the depersonalization component. These results are consistent with a study by Garrosa et al. with 473 nurses working in Spanish hospitals as the sample [34].
In this study, there was a significant inverse correlation between overall emotional intelligence and the components of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal inadequacy). Also, the results of regression test showed that the components of interpersonal relationships, responsibility and empathy have a significant role in predicting burnout in nurses. This finding is consistent with the results of studies by Delpasand et al., Asadi et al., Zaph, and Carson et al. [37-35, 17].
In this study, there was a significant inverse correlation between overall emotional intelligence and the components of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal inadequacy). Also, the results of regression test showed that the components of interpersonal relationships, responsibility and empathy had a significant role in predicting burnout in nurses. This finding is consistent with the results of studies by Delpasand et al., Asadi et al., and Zaph [17, 35-37].
 
 

Job stress can lead to physical or psychological harm and in the long run lead to negative outcomes in the performance of nurses and hospitals; in the long run, this leads to burnout in nurses and reduced ability to care for patients. Actions such as paying attention to the concept of emotional intelligence and promoting it in the nursing profession can be considered in preventing such problems.

 

The authors would like to express their gratitude to all the people who helped them with valuable comments.

 

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.