Effect of insight meditation on enhancing emotional intelligence among Thai psychiatric nurses

• Main Authors: Vongareesawat C., Thapinta D., Disayavanish C., Anders R., Tungpunkom P.
• Format: Article
• Published: Chiang Mai University 2015
• Subjects: Multidisciplinary
• Online Access: http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=84872233394&origin=inward; http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/handle/6653943832/38154
• Institution: Chiang Mai University

Psychiatric nurses' use of emotional intelligence (EI) may contribute to the mental health of patients. Nurses with high EI ability may be better at fostering a therapeutic relationship with mentally ill individuals to help them deal with stress as well as assist the nurse to maintain his/her own mental health. The overall objective of this study was to examine the effect of insight meditation on enhancing EI among Thai psychiatric nurses. This two group pretest-posttest experimental design examined the differences of the EI scores, among participants before and after participating in the intervention of insight meditation, as well as between the experimental group and the control group. Twenty-six registered psychiatric nurses met the inclusion criteria. The experimental group received the intervention of insight meditation practice for eight days, whereas the control group received none. The intervention protocol included a booklet the researcher developed, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness for Enhancing EI (a booklet containing insight meditation practice for enhancing EI and the Vipassanā meditation practice questionnaire). Demographic information was obtained from all participants. The Thai Emotional Intelligence Screening Test for the Thai Population aged 12 to 60 years (TEISTTP) was administered before the start of the intervention for both the control and intervention groups. The TEISTTP was administered again on the day the insight meditation intervention ended and at a one-month follow-up. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square, t-test, and one-way repeated measure analysis of variance. The major finding was that the EI of the experimental group that practiced insight meditation as assessed by the TEISTTP increased significantly (p<0.05).