Influence of Emotional Intelligence of Experienced Nurses on Nursing Managerial Competence: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Communication Competence

Purpose: To identify the mediating effect of the communication competence on the relationship between emotional intelligence and nursing managerial competence among experienced nurses.Methods: A total of 186 nurses with more than 10 years of experience working in six general hospitals participated.Data were collected using a selfreported questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS Statistics ver.23.0 and SPSS Process Macro for descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Scheffe test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, multiple regression analysis, and bootstrapping method.Results: Nursing managerial competence was significantly associated with emotional intelligence (r=.32, p<.001) and communication competence (r=.42, p<.001).Additionally, communication competence had a complete mediating effect on the relationship between emotional intelligence and nursing managerial competence (indirect effect=0.45,boot SE=0.11, 95% boot CI=[0.25,0.67]).Conclusion: Strategies for enhancing the experienced nurses' nursing managerial competence should be considered to improve communication competence as well as emotional intelligence and develop nursing managerial competency-related education programs by career stages.In particular, the nursing management competency-related education should focus on improving human resource management and planning competences.