The Power of Emotional Intelligence for Hospitalists

Emotions drive people, people drive performance. This oft-quoted expression provides a simplified explanation of emotional intelligence, but let’s dive a little deeper and consider its importance to hospitalists. It’s a typical workday as a hospitalist. As you’re talking with a sick patient and frustrated family members, your pager goes off, your employer-provided phone just gifted you a new admission in the emergency department, and secure chat messages are piling up in the electronic medical record as you struggle to keep up with the real world.  How do you control your emotions and stay composed during your super busy days? As hospitalists, we treat a variety of patients in terms of disease processes, socioeconomic aspects, and health literacy. Although consultants are seeing patients, hospitalists are responsible for the holistic aspect of patient care. All hospitalists are leaders, irrespective of our formal roles and responsibilities, due to our remarkable impact on every aspect of inpatient care. For human beings, emotions are inevitable. Our emotions have a significant impact on almost everything we say and do. Due to mirror neurons, our emotions are highly contagious. Both our positive and negative emotions have a profound impact on us and those around us. Some people are energy givers, and some are energy killers. As hospitalists, every day we take care of complex, sick patients and make crucial decisions that can be lifesaving or life-ending if not done corr...
Source: The Hospitalist - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Career Source Type: research