Research in Medical Education

  Introduction : According to importance of promoting mental health of nurses and its role in their quality of services, the present study aims at determining the effect of training emotional intelligence on occupational performance and general health of nurses working in various wards of Shafa hospital of Rasht city.

  Methods : This is a trial pretest-posttest survey with control and experimental group. The statistical sample of study includes all nurses working in wards of Shafa hospital of Rasht in 2012- 2013. The instrument used in this study is general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) (1972). From the statistical sample, 200 individuals were randomly selected, after completing questionnaires, 30 subjects with score above cutting line 26 in general health questionnaire were randomly placed in two 15-member control and experimental groups. The experimental group received two training sessions of emotional intelligence for one month, two sessions in a week and the control group received no training. Finally, posttest was performed for both groups.

  Results: Data was analyzed using Mancova. Results indicated that teaching emotional intelligence has a significant impact on public health (P< 0/001) and eta squared contribute greatly to this effect (0 . 61) showed. Also intelligence training has a significant impact on physical symptoms, anxiety symptoms, social functioning and symptoms of depression. (P<0 . 01)

  Conclusion : Emotional intelligence training could be effective as a strategy to enhance mental health of nurses.