Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Leadership and Patient Care in Healthcare

While emotional intelligence (EI) is crucial for healthcare leadership, the lack of emphasis on it leads to ineffective leadership, burnout, and negative patient outcomes. According to the Joint Commission (2022), studies indicate low emotional intelligence in healthcare teams often leads to communication failures and accounts for 70% of medical errors. Moreover, burnout impacts more than half of healthcare workers, leading to a decline in job satisfaction and a rise in turnover rates (National Academy of Medicine, 2021). Even with these difficulties, the development of leadership in healthcare tends to place greater importance on technical skills over emotional intelligence (Goleman, 2006). This study investigates the influence of EI on leadership effectiveness and patient care through a systematic review of the literature from databases such as Academic Search Ultimate, Business Source Complete, and Google Scholar. Key themes encompass collaboration, stress management, and patient satisfaction—vital for healthcare efficiency and safety (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). Future studies can concentrate on quantitative surveys evaluating the influence of EI on leadership and qualitative investigations into leaders’ lived experiences with EI (Bar-On, 2006; Cherniss, 2010).