Abstract:

Purpose: The importance of health workers has revealed more with the epidemic process. This process also required healthcare workers to be in contact with more individuals than in the normal process. This study aims to reveal the relationship between emotional intelligence and communication skills of healthcare workers. Design/Methodology: 150 questionnaires have been applied to healthcare workers by using the “Emotional Intelligence Scale” of Wong and Law (2002) and “Communication Skills Scale-Adult Form” of Korkut-Owenand Demirbaş-Çelik, (2017). Findings:. Reliability, frequency, correlation, and regression analyses have been made via the SPSS statistical program and the outcomes have been interpreted. It is clear that there is a positive and significant relationship between employees’ communication skills and perception of emotional intelligence (r=0.823, p<0.01) via the Pearson correlation analysis. It is also concluded that there is an effect of emotional intelligence on communication skills (p<0.05, beta=.823). Limitations: The limitations of the study are that the sample only consists of the employees of a private hospital operating in the Mediterranean Region and only includes healthcare professionals. Originality/Value: A study examining the relationship between emotional intelligence and communication skills of individuals during the recent pandemic process has not been reached. In this respect, the study has an original value in that the emotional intelligence levels of the employees focus on their communication skills in a difficult period such as the pandemic. In addition, several suggestions and implications are also offered for hospital administrators and policymakers in this study.

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