Abstract

Aims: Nursing profession is full of interactions especially regarding its affective dimension. Nurses need to have a better understanding and management of their own and their patients' emotions so that they will be able to make the right decisions and offer the best heath care services. The present study was an attempt to check the relationship between different com-ponents of emotional intelligence and some of the demographical variables in nurses. Method: It was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study conducted in 2011 on 212 nurs-es (101 female and 111 male) in some selected military hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Bradberi and Greaves questionnaire was used in order to assess the components of emotional intelli-gence. Results: The average emotional intelligence score was 79.4. Self-awareness and social awareness had the highest scores among the four components. From among all the demo-graphic variables, only the level of education and salary showed a significant correlation with self-management. Conclusion: The results showed that the majority of nurses enjoyed an average level of emo-tional intelligence.