Emotional Stability and Its' Relation with Decision Making Skills among Nursing Educators at Beni Suif Nursing Schools

Introduction

Today it is recognized that aspects of cognition that are the focus of schooling – learning, attention, memory, decision making, motivation and social functioning are not only affected by emotion but intertwined within emotion processes. In addition, application of knowledge, facts and logical reasoning skills learnt at school to real world situations requires emotion processes. The new directions in thinking about emotions have contributed to a greater understanding of student and teacher experiences of emotion, in particular, an enhanced knowledge of how emotion can be regulated. Researchers now know that emotion regulation is associated with favorable education outcomes (Fried, 2011).

Emotional stability plays an important role in the academic profession. It has the direct impact on the educator's behavior and teaching method. Educators are considered as the pillars of any institution, which directly or indirectly affects the standards of the institution. A more recent approach to the study of the educator's effectiveness acknowledges the many differentiated roles that teacher play and examines effectiveness across the various roles (Muijs, et al, 2005)

Research about the educator's effectiveness traditionally has focused on identifying the generic characteristics of effective educators as measured by classroom practice and cognitive students' outcomes. Educators who are competent about their subject matter are more likely to have better educational outcomes than educators who are apathetic towards their subject. Educators who successfully fulfill the role of competency have been shown to consistently identify resilient quality in their students, use effective communication, empathy and support in their everyday interaction with students (Khatoon, 2015).

Another author stated that features of educators' decisions are based on students’ characteristics and teaching strategies. Educators are changing many decisions during the activities through micro-decisions that they take in a very short lapse of time. They are mainly based on students’ feed-back and micro-assessments, indicating that teachers have to change something to better carry out the lesson. For this reason, it is convenient to design some reflective and meta-cognitive times during lessons, to improve the effectiveness of instant decisions for teachers and students. Likewise, the self-evaluation after lessons might help teachers in arranging a new way for planning, avoiding biases (Parmigiani, 2012).

Aim of the study

The aim of the current study is to assess the relation between emotional stability and decision making skills among nursing educators at Beni suif nursing schools.

Significance of the Study

Through one of the researchers was working in Beni Suif nursing school, The researcher was found that most nursing educators have their decisions by their feelings and  emotions. As when they are anger, stressed or depressed, their decisions affected negatively. They have no emotional stability appears in lacking in communication, and inability to cope with daily challenges, etc. All these issues may affect the teaching process at the nursing schools negatively. So the researcher introducing this study about emotional stability and its' relation with decision making skills because it is vital for the nursing educators. In which maintaining emotional stability during decision making helps nursing educators to take good decision during the teaching process and their training of the students in the hospital.

Subjects& Methods

Research design

A descriptive correlation design was used to achieve the aim of the present study and answer the research question.

Research Questions:

• What are the emotional stability among nursing educators at  Beni suif nursing schools?
• Are there relationship between emotional stability and decision making skills among nursing educators at Beni Suif nursing schools?

Study area and settings:

The study was carried out at Beni Suif nursing schools, there are seven schools at Beni Suif governorate, Egypt. The study was conducted during the period from August 2017 to September 2017.

Study subjects

    The subjects  of the study sample included all nursing educators working in all nursing schools at Beni Suif governorate  schools during the period of data collection equal to (105 nursing educators) working in different schools.

Exclusion Criteria:

Nursing educators less than one year in nursing education experience and worked on an irregular basis in the schools.

Tools and technique of data collection:

Data was collected through the utilization of three tools as follows:

Tool (1) Personal data sheet that was used to collect data about the personal characteristics of the study participants. It was included seven items related to name, age, nursing qualification, area of work, current position, years of experience and residence.

Tool (2) - Emotional Stability Questionnaire:

This tool developed by Hamdan, (2010)   to  test   emotional stability of  individuals, it consisted of (56) items with five point Likert scale ranged from 1 (always), 2 (often ), 3( sometimes ), 4(rarely),  and 5 (never).

It consisted of two dimensions:

1. The first dimension: ability to control on their different emotion .This dimension consisted of (26) items.
2. Second dimension: flexibility in dealing with life situations. This dimension consisted of (30) items.

The scoring system: The total score of emotional stability test ranged from (56 to 280), it is divided into three levels from (56 to130) low, from (131 to 205) moderate, and from (206 to 280) high in emotional stability level.

Tool (3) - Decision Making Questionnaire

This tool developed by Hamdan, (2010) to assess how individuals approach decision situations. It consisted of (38) items with five point Likert scale ranged from  1(completely disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (not sure), 4 (agree), and 5 (completely agree).For a positive statement from (1 to 27) the score was reversed in the negative statements. The negative statements from (28 to 38). 

Validity and reliability of the study tools:

 The study tools were tested for the content validity by a jury of 5 experts in the field of Nursing Administration, the jury composed of two assistant professors in Nursing Administration Department - Faculty of Nursing- Minia University, and three assistant professors Nursing Administration Department - Faculty of Nursing- Assuit University. Each expert on the panel was asked to examine the instrument for content coverage, clarity, wording, length, format and overall appearance. The tools were translated to English and a necessary modification was done.

 Reliability

Also, the study tools were tested for internal reliability with cronbach' alpha for emotional stability was (= 0.01) and decision making skills was (=0.60). (Reliability referred to the consistency of measurement and was frequently assessed using the test-retest reliability method).

Ethical Considerations:

A written initial approval was obtained from the research ethics committee of the faculty of nursing, and then another approval to conduct the study was obtained from the Undersecretary of the Directorate of health asking for the permission to collect data. The aim and process of study were explained through direct personal communication with the nursing educators, as well as to assess their approval prior starting their participation in the study to gain their cooperation, voluntary participation and confidentiality was assured. After that, data collection was started.

Study procedure:

An official permission to conduct the present study was obtained from each of the following; the Vice Dean of post graduate studies and Research at Faculty of Nursing, then another approval to conduct the study was obtained from the Undersecretary of the Directorate of health asking for the permission to collect data and ethical committee. After explaining the purpose and the nature of the study, the researcher informed the study nursing educators that their participation in the study is voluntary and confidential. Then the researcher interviewed with them daily through morning except Saturdays and Fridays for about 2 months in August and September 2017, handed the questionnaire for the nursing educators and wait with them during their working hours to fill it and it was collected after filling. The time required for filling the tools was thirty minutes approximately.

Statistical analysis of data

Data obtained from the study tools were categorized, tabulated, analyzed and data entry was performed using the SPSS software (statistical package for social Sciences version (22.0). Descriptive statistics were applied in the form of (e.g. Mean, Standard deviation, frequency and percentage). Tests of significance were performed to test the study hypotheses (i.e. t- test, and ANOVA test). Pearson's correlation coefficient was applied between quantitative variables. A significant level value was considered when p<0.05.

Results

Figure (1): Levels of emotional stability among nursing educators in Beni Suif Nursing Schools (N=105)

Figure (1) Indicated that, the (81%) of the nursing educators had low level in their emotional stability. In contrast, about (4.5%) of the nursing educators had high level in their emotional stability.

Figure (2): Levels of decision making skills among nursing educators at Beni Suif Nursing Schools. (N=105)

Figure (2): Revealed that the (75.2%) of the nursing educators had low level in their decision making skills. In contrast, (7.6%) of the nursing educators had high level in their decision making skills.

Table(1):Correlation between  emotional stability and decision making skills among  nursing educators in Beni Suif Nursing Schools (N=105)

** high statisical significance difference (P=0.000)

Table(1) as observed from table (1) that, there were a weak positive correlation between emotional stability and decision making skills among nursing educators.