Nurse-to-Nurse Hostility, Confrontational Anxiety, and Emotional Intelligence: An Integral, Descriptive Pilot Study

Nurse-to-nurse hostility (NNH) is an emotional challenge within a group and has a negative impact on performance, nurse satisfaction/retention, health, and patient safety. The purpose of this study was to explore confrontational anxiety scores (CAS) of acute care nurses, including perianesthesia nurses, resulting from NNH by asking: In combined groups, will high levels of individual emotional intelligence (EI) and group emotional competence (GEC) be associated with low CAS and will there be a difference in CAS between military and civilian nurses? Data were gathered from two valid and reliable self-report questionnaires. Participants rated confrontational anxiety from 1 to 5, yielding the CAS. The hypotheses were tested via t test with alpha set at 0.05 and 0.9 powered for combined groups testing. The study was underpowered for individual groups. Statistical significance (P = .02) was found in subscales “Regulation of Emotion,” “Norms for Confronting Members,” and “Team Self-evaluation.” No statistically significant difference in CAS was found between the two populations. The results support the need to improve EI and GEC to achieve constructive and appropriate member behavior during interactions (ie, reduce anxiety and occurrence of NNH) to preserve group trust, effectiveness, and collaboration, therefore positively impacting performance, nurse satisfaction/retention, health, and patient safety.

Keywords: nurse-to-nurse hostility, emotional intelligence, group emotional competence, confrontational anxiety, norms