Emotional control and social competence of nurses working in palliative care: a research report on workers from the Warmia and Mazury voivodeship

Background. A patient in the terminal phase of cancer requires the care of a multidisciplinary team. The patient spends most of the time with a nurse, who in addition to minimizing physical ailments is often the trustee of the patient and their family. Therefore it is important to control the emotions arising in the course of nursing work and combine „hard” elementsie. substantive knowledge and skills with „ soft”, interpersonal elements. This is referred to in a Ministry of Science and Higher Education regulation from the 9 th of May, 2012, addressing universities’ education standards for medical, dental, pharmaceutical, nursing and midwifery fields of study. Material and Methods. The study was carried out in from July 2015 till April 2016 amongst a group of nurses from the Warmia-Mazury voivodeship working in 27 palliative care centers. We analyzed 112 research toolkits containing Scale of emotional control by M. Watson and S. Greer, Social competence questionnaire KKS-A by A. Matczak and a general data questionnaire. Results. We found a negative association between levels of emotional control and social competence in general and in specific subscales. The respondents suppress anger, anxiety, and depression at a similar level. The highest level of suppression, with particular emphasis on fear, was recorded in stationary hospice workers. Less than a quarter of respondents achieved high results in level of social competence. Conclusions. Increased suppression of emotions correlates with a declining level of social competence of nurses. Employees of house and stationary hospices differ in the level and method of emotional suppression. The subjects’ age has a significant effect on the efficiency of behavior in situations requiring assertiveness.