RESUMO
AIM: This study investigated the effect of the emotional intelligence education programme on quality of life of haemodialysis patients. BACKGROUND: Nurses need knowledge development regarding the impact of educational strategies on patients' quality of life suffering from chronic diseases. METHODS: A pragmatic quasi-randomized controlled trial was conducted with 47 haemodialysis patients attending a university hospital in an urban area of Iran. The patients were randomly assigned to intervention (n=23) and control (n=24) groups. A socio-demographic questionnaire, the Cyberia-Shrink Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, and the Kidney Disease Quality of Life-Short Form were used to gather data. The intervention group attended an educational programme on emotional intelligence that consisted of six-group discussion sessions. To ensure the continuity of learning and to measure the subsequent expected behavioural changes, the patients filled out the data collection tools six and 12weeks after the completion of the education programme. RESULTS: The mean score of quality of life in the intervention group was 39.94±15.88 in pre-test, 44.87±16.04 six weeks and 52.47±16.07 at the 12weeks after the intervention (p=0.032). CONCLUSION: The consideration of emotional intelligence educational strategies by nurses requires its incorporation into pre-qualifying nursing degrees and professional development programmes. Nurse managers need to lead nurses for applying emotional intelligence in daily practice with the aim of providing an holistic patient care.