CONCLUSION
The aim of treatment modalities such as haemodialysis is the increase of patients’ survival rates and improvement of their QoL. Findings from this study provides evidence for nurses and nursing managers to provide EI education programmes to enhance the QoL of haemodialysis patients. The consideration of EI improvement strategies in patient care by nurses requires its incorporation into the curricula of pre-qualifying nursing degrees and within continuing professional development programmes. It is noted that emotional intelligence is considered a crucial part and motivator of high quality nursing care (Jönsson, 2012). Also, the establishment of a favourable, empowering and creative workplace needs nurses to achieve emotional intelligence skills (Heckemann, Schols, & Halfens, 2015; Echevarria, Patterson, & Krouse, 2017). Therefore, nurse managers are needed to achieve EI knowledge and skills in order to lead and educate nurses to apply an holistic perspective in terms of physical, psychological and emotional aspects of patient care in daily practice. Further research to evaluate the relationship between the application of EI by nurse managers and the quality of nursing care is recommended. The effects of the EI education programme on other aspects of chronic diseases such as depression, anxiety, and self-efficacy need investigations.
