4 Actions to Enhance Emotional Intelligence in Nursing

When emotional intelligence in nursing is advanced among individuals working together, each person can understand and express opinions, concerns, and emotions without causing toxicity.

This is the goal for a high-performing perioperative team, but it’s not often the reality.

Joana Afonso, RN, a perioperative nurse at Hospital CUF Sintra in Sintra, Portugal, and a certified consultant in Emotional Intelligence (EI), says it’s our “ability to empathize with the emotions of those around us, and our ability to listen more than we speak that can be a decisive factor in positive, effective communication in nursing and effective teamwork.”

Reaching a Higher Level of Emotional Intelligence at Work

When Afonso helps perioperative nurses build their emotional intelligence skills, she often helps them strengthen strategies to better manage conflict resolution in nursing. She says we can use emotional intelligence in nursing to change how we face the actions of coworkers who threaten to impede our growth and distance us from the excellence of care that we all seek to provide to our patients.

This work starts with acknowledging weaknesses and insecurities, and better managing emotions in an assertive and appropriate way “to target the underlying causes of toxicity that cause workplace incivility, bullying, and nurses feeling undervalued.”

Learning how to change the way you respond when it’s difficult or impossible to change the situation you face can help anyone survive an emotional crisis, Afonso says. To do this, she teaches a dialectical behavior therapy technique known as TIPP, which stands for Temperature, Intense Exercise, Paced Breathing, and Progressive Muscle Relaxation. Here they are in detail: 

Temperature

Reducing our body temperature reduces emotional intensity.
Action: Find a way to cool your body or even just your face (think a cool shower or cold water on your face).

Paced Breathing

When we exhale, our body relaxes, so if we slow down our breathing and exhale for longer than we inhale, we will relax.
Action: Try breathing in with your diaphragm for four seconds and breathing out for six seconds, and repeat.

Afonso says tools like TIPP can help us change how we respond to conflict resolution in nursing in the moment. Long-term, such tools can help us learn strategies to “actively prioritize in ourselves what we can inspire in our patients… our hearts, our minds, our mental and physical health, and our emotional and psychological stability.”

By building emotional intelligence, perioperative nurses can foster more respectful and resilient teams—where effective communication in nursing becomes the norm, not the exception. Tools like TIPP support conflict resolution in nursing by helping individuals regulate their emotions and respond thoughtfully under pressure. As these practices take root, they create a more supportive perioperative environment that benefits both staff and patients.

Resources That Support Nursing Team Communication 

• Periop 101: Novice nurses learn how to establish and maintain a culture of safety through dedicated lessons on patient safety and the relationship between organizational influences and patient outcomes. Additionally, through the included Preparing the Preceptor course, preceptors learn how to positively influence novice nurses to follow established processes and speak up when safety is being compromised.
• AORN CineMed Video Library: Both new and experienced nurses can benefit from the comprehensive video-based course on team communication — one of over 40 courses in the video library focused on patient and staff safety. Upon course completion, learners will be able to define mutual respect, describe a culture of safety, and discuss the team communication components that are essential in the perioperative environment.
• eGuidelines Plus: Give the entire perioperative team and ancillary departments access to the information and tools needed to put learned practices into action. Access the complete AORN Guideline for Team Communication, key takeaways, and FAQs. Download and customize team communication implementation resources including audit and gap analysis tools, a case study, an in-service PowerPoint, three policy and procedure templates, and four competency verification tools.

Every perioperative team has unique strengths and challenges when it comes to ensuring consistent best practices and professional development. The support healthcare facilities provide is vital to the engagement and clinical competency of perioperative professionals. Equip your team with evidence-based education and resources to ensure consistent, high-quality perioperative care.