Effect of Mindful Breathing Exercise on Resiliency

Emotional intelligence is awareness one’s own and others’ emotions and regulating emotions and emotional reactions to situations and others. Practicing self-awareness and regulation of emotions builds skills to recognize others’ emotions and reactions to situations. EI helps reset after a difficult situation, can facilitate open communication, and can strengthen the trust relationship between the patient and the perioperative team for better outcomes (patient, team, and community.) EI has relatively low-cost training options that have been validated in other professions, and may be an efficient way to improve the nursing shortage by retaining nurses and recruiting others to the profession.

Resilience and positive emotions have been positively associated with nurses’ job satisfaction and as patient outcomes, and can protect against burnout. Resilience has been linked to emotional intelligence (EI); EI is a learnable skill. Teaching EI strategies may also be associated with positive nursing job satisfaction, retention, and patient outcomes.

Some EI-enhancing skills that can be taught are journaling, meditation, breathing techniques, mental discipline, and celebrating small victories. Journaling and meditation build emotional self-awareness. Practicing breathing techniques, developing mental discipline, and celebrating small victories build emotional self-regulation.

EI techniques can be practiced at work and easily shown to others to positively affect the perioperative team.

Small mindfulness techniques and refocusing on positive emotions have become part of de-stressing multiple workplace environments. Mindful breathing techniques decrease stress in police officers (Papazoglou, Collins, & Chopko, 2018) and reflective pauses and mindfulness huddles decreases nurses’ stress (West, 2018). Nurses focusing on the positive events (Sexton, AORN 2018) and physicians focusing on positive thinking (NEJM) increased resilience (Tawfik, Sexton, Adair, Kaplan, & Profit, 2017). Emotional intelligence training and its positive affect on wellbeing (Gross & John, 2003) as well as behaviors (Kidwell, Hasford, & Hardesty, 2015) indicate a potential association that should be explored in regard to nurses’ resilience.

Positive emotions and mindfulness are associated with resilience in nurses. However, there is a gap in purposeful emotional intelligence skills training and that builds resilience among perioperative nurses. Strategies to build emotional intelligence may be associated with nurses’ job satisfaction and retention and should be investigated further.

Discuss the importance of emotional intelligence in the perioperative setting.

Develop ways to incorporate emotional intelligence building strategies in their personal and work lives.