Nursing

King's theory is a broad theory designed to provide a framework for nursing (I.M. King, 1981), whereas emotional intelligence (EI; J.D. Mayer & P. Salovey, 2004) is a theory that is specific for addressing potential competency in dealing with emotions and emotional information. J.D. Mayer, P. Salovey, D.R. Caruso, and G. Sitarenios (2001) defined EI as the "ability to recognize the meaning of emotions and their relationships and to use them as a basis for reasoning and problem solving" (p. 234). These researchers believed that EI is related to cognitive intellect through the ability to use reasoning by way of information to find meaning. J.D. Mayer and P. Salovey (2004) argued that the skills that comprise EI were likely enhanced through obtaining a liberal education infused with values exploration. J.D. Mayer, P. Salovey, D.R. Caruso, and G. Sitarenios (2001) contended that there are 4 branches of abilities that create EI: (a) the skill of perceiving emotion within oneself and others, (b) assimilation of an emotion to facilitate thinking, (c) understanding and knowledge of emotion, and (d) conscious regulation of emotion. Each level or branch builds upon the previous one, and awareness of what each branch offers the individual in enhancing relationships with others is a key component of healthy emotional interactions. This article will provide a theoretic foundation based upon King's interacting systems theory (IST; 1981) that embraces EI as a crucial component in the nurse's ability to provide holistic care for patients, peers, and themselves. King's IST underscores the necessity of nurses possessing abilities of EI as they care for others but does not fully describe a mechanism to understand and incorporate emotions within the complex nurse-patient interactions and communications that are part of the nursing process.

Nurses often do not become faculty through deliberate intention; rather they enter the role because of circumstance. While they may be expert practitioners, they are often not prepared for faculty roles. Unlike traditional preparation for nursing practice, which requires clinical education, the role of nurse teacher often has no systematic preparation. The purpose of the Nurse Faculty Intern (NFI) Pilot Study was to investigate the role development of nurse educators and the mechanism by which graduate students gain competencies related to pedagogy through practical experience and a relationship with mentors. Results from the study revealed need for intentional role development for the NFI. Even though NFI's had many years of nursing experience, they expressed the need for orientation to teaching pedagogy to better use their nursing knowledge when working with students. This article will present the findings and recommendations from the study.

Effective leadership is essential to healthcare, and it is no less important to the leadership of healthcare regulatory agencies. This article describes and differentiates the 3 leadership styles: transactional, transformational, and strategic. The article further argues that the skills of strategic leadership are essential to regulatory leadership and, despite the bureaucracy, can be cultivated in the regulatory arena.

The Future of Nursing, Leading Change, Advancing Health (Institute of Medicine 2011) challenged the profession of nursing to assume leadership of interdisciplinary health care teams. Leading these teams requires cognitive ability to manage highly charged and emotional work. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a characteristic necessary to process emotional information for creative problem solving. In addition, emerging evidence indicates there may be an association of nurses' EI and quality patient care (K. Adams et al., 2011). The foundation for development of competencies essential for nursing practice begins with nursing education. This quasi-experimental study investigated if baccalaureate-level nursing education increased the level of EI as operationalized by J. D. Mayer and P. Salovey's (2004) four-branch abilities model. Findings indicated that senior nursing students scored higher on the ability to understand and reason about emotions over pre-nursing students (P < .05...