Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/148059
Executive Briefing: Emotional Intelligence 39 healthcare context. Healthcare job performance is different than most jobs in the labor market. Physicians, for instance, may score high on traditional measures of EQ, but other behavioral traits can prevent them from displaying the highly collaborative or patientcentered behaviors we'd expect," says Dr. Kinney. If each of these nurses can learn about their natural behavioral propensities, they can develop behaviors and practices to improve their patients' experiences. The first can learn to take a minute to read the anxiety level of her patients. The second can learn to be more diligent in administering treatments. From our years of working with healthcare organizations, we've developed an innovative behavioral construct to patient-centered care that incorporates the concept of "healthcare emotional intelligence." Where a physician or nurse scores on the continuum for these areas is less important than their ability to understand their behavioral make-up and adapt accordingly. One CEO told us, "We check all the boxes on our service excellence program and pat ourselves on the back, but our patient satisfaction scores have not improved." The specific, individual behaviors and interactions of every physician, nurse and staff member are what drive patient-centered care. More importantly, people must understand something about their own behavioral make-up so they can learn to modify their behaviors, accordingly. Compassion. How compassion is measured and how the results presented, are important. For compassion to be useful, it must result in positive action. Providers who are exceptionally high in compassion may struggle separating their feelings from the decision-making process. Even highly factual (vs. feeling) individuals can connect with patients and co-workers if they are aware and able to convey that they are trying to understand the other's emotional state. Awareness. The ability to understand a situation and either focus on the details or the big picture, as appropriate, is invaluable to creating a patient-centric culture and to successfully collaborating and working in teams. Regulation. The ability to moderate emotions allows individuals to problem solve under stress, and to maintain productive, professional relationships. Those who are highly excitable may be at a greater risk for impulsive negative remarks or actions (think about disruptive behavior). Those who are hyper-controlled, however, are often perceived as distant and uncaring. Emotional intelligence. Your level of "social focus." Are you so focused on the task at hand that you fail to read the needs of patients and colleagues, or are you easily able to read others' emotions and use that information to achieve a positive outcome? Training implications Traditionally, patient-centered care has involved service excellence programs like those adapted to healthcare from Disney or the Ritz Carlton. These have their limitations. Imagine a patient with bad reaction to anesthesia. It's fairly routine but still uncomfortable and unnerving for the patient and the family. One nurse may be highly conscientious and clinically competent and quickly work through the right protocol. The symptoms will resolve, but she doesn't pick up on the patient's anxiety or address it. Another nurse may not be quite as conscientious or detail oriented, but she is more comforting; she knows to put a hand on the patient's shoulder and to assure the family that this is normal. The two patient and family experiences will be very different. Dr. Kinney relates his experience: "The key to developing in this behavioral style is self-awareness. If an EQ assessment pinpoints profiles that do not lead to a positive patient experience, then the participant can learn to modify behavior in future situations to be more in tune with the needs of the patient. People learn that by forcing themselves to attend to how they are being perceived, they are able to impact positive outcomes. The most successful patient-centered care training programs will combine service excellence principles with behavioral assessments that provide staff with useful insight into their own behavioral make-up — including healthcare-specific emotional intelligence. It is not possible to train patient satisfaction through a 'one-size fits all' training paradigm. Rather, different people have different development needs when it comes to the way they interact with others. Starting a patient satisfaction development program should always be preceded by 'taking the temperature' with a well developed EQ measure to understand the participant's unique challenges in connecting with others." n Endnotes: i ttp://news.consumerreports.org/health/2011/06/teaching-hosh pitals-not-always-best-for-patient-safety.html. ii See: • Emotional intelligence in medicine: A systematic review through ( the context of the ACGME competencies. Arora, S., Ashrafian, H., Davis, R., Athanasiou, T., Darzi, A., & Sevdalis, N. (2010). Medical Education, 44(8), 749-764) • he relationship between physician empathy and disease comT plications: an empirical study of primary care physicians and their diabetic patients in Parma, Italy, Canale SD, Louis DZ, Maio V, et al.. Acad Med. 2012; 87(9):1243-1249.) • mpact and Implications of Disruptive Behavior in the PerioperaI tive Arena, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, July, 2006.) Since its founding in 1993, Select International has been dedicated to developing assessment solutions that help companies identify, select and develop top talent throughout their organization. Select's Healthcare Solutions Group specializes in developing assessment technology to help healthcare organizations improve the return on their most important investment – their people.