الفهرس 
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Abstract
Nursing leaders are responsible for facilitating the achievement of nursing, organizational and patient outcomes. Emotional intelligence (EI), has been identified as important for leaders in healthcare through the ability to identify, understand, and use emotions positively to manage anxiety, communicate well, empathize, overcome issues, solve problems, and manage conflicts. Employee engagement is a set of positive emotions that brings congruence and focus on goal alignment, resulting in the reduction of organizational nonconformity. Hence, understanding the interaction between managers’ EI and employee engagement is deemed important.
This study was aimed at identifying the relationship between head nurses’ emotional intelligence and staff nurses’ engagement through assessing the level of head nurses’ emotional intelligence, assessing the level of staff nurses’ engagement, and finding out the relationship between head nurses’ emotional intelligence and staff nurses’ engagement.
The study was conducted at Shebin El-kom Educational Hospital, located at Menoufia Governorate, and affiliated to the General Organization for Educational Institutions and Hospitals using a descriptive correlational design. It involved a head nurses group consisting of all head nurses (30) and their assistants (30) in the setting, in addition to a convenience sample of 222 of their subordinate staff nurses. Two tools were used in data collection, namely a standardized validated emotional intelligence scale for head nurses and an engagement questionnaire for staff nurses validated by experts and pilot-tested. The fieldwork lasted from October to December 2018. All administrative and research ethics principles were followed.
The main study findings were as following.
The head nurses and their assistants:
o Median age was 35.0 years, with a majority having bachelor degree (98.3%), and median experience 12.9 years.
o The highest EI domain was general mood (90.0%), whereas the lowest was stress tolerance (21.7%). Overall, 75.0% of them were having high EI.
o Significant weak positive correlations were shown between experience years and the domain of interpersonal competencies (r=0.259), and total EI score (r=0.299).
o In multivariate analysis:
The married status was a significant positive predictor of interpersonal score.
A higher nursing qualification was a significant positive predictor of the adaptability, stress management, and total EI scores.
The experience years was a significant positive predictor of the mood score.
The attendance of training courses was a significant negative predictor of the adaptability and total EI scores.
Staff nurses:
o Median age was 35.0 years, with a majority females (83.8%), with diploma degree (84.7%); median experience was 15.0 years.
o Engagement was generally low percentages; the only exception was for the domain of nurse work life (56.3%).
o In total, the majority (73.9%) had a moderate level of engagement and only 11.7% were having a high level of total engagement.
o Significant positive correlations were revealed between age and experience years and the domain of “the job”.
o In multivariate analysis:
Age was a significant positive predictor of the scores of “leadership/management” and “communication” domains;
Experience years was a significant positive predictor of the “the job” domain score, but a negative predictor of the scores in the domains of “leadership/ management” and “communication.”
The total EI scores of head nurses and their assistants and of staff nurses’ engagement had no significant correlations.
In conclusion, the head nurses and their assistants have generally high levels of emotional intelligence while their subordinate staff nurses have generally low levels of engagement. No significant correlations could be identified between head nurses and their assistants’ emotional intelligence and staff nurses’ engagement.
The study recommends head nurses’ training in stress management, with more engagement in decision-making to improve their engagement. Intensive training programs, are strongly recommended for staff nurses to improve their engagement, and addressing the factors decreasing their job satisfaction. The hospital should reward head nurses and their assistants to motivate them to preserve their high level of emotional intelligence, and motivate staff nurses for good work and performance to foster their engagement. Future study of the effect of improving emotional intelligence on nurses’ work engagement is proposed.