Understanding and Building Emotional Intelligence in Health Care
From the Show: Childrens Health - Peer
Summary:
Air Date: 12/17/19
Duration: 10 Minutes
Dr. Rina M. Sanghavi educates health care professionals on the importance of emotional intelligence—the ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships.
Transcription:
Melanie Cole (Host): Today we’re discussing understanding and building emotional intelligence for healthcare professionals and our expert is Dr. Rina Sanghavi. She’s the Director of Neurogastroenterology Program and the Office of Faculty Engagement at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Health in Dallas. This is Pediatric Insights; Advances and Innovations With Children’s Health, where we explore the latest in pediatric care and research. I’m Melanie Cole. Dr. Sanghavi, welcome to the show and before we dive in, what made you interested in and passionate about the topic of emotional intelligence?
Rina M. Sanghavi, MD (Guest): So, a few years ago, I realized that there was a difference between people’s ability to lead and the difference wasn’t so much about how many skills they had, but it was more about how they were able to apply those skills especially to people skills. And then when I went on to get my MBA in Healthcare Management, we studied this topic of emotional intelligence and that’s really what brought it home to me that while IQ intelligence can get you the job, emotional intelligence is even more important in terms of success in the job as well as ability to keep the job and continue to progress forward in your leadership journey.
Host: How interesting. What a fascinating topic today. Dr. Sanghavi, you presented on the topic of emotional intelligence at the annual meeting of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. Tell us a little bit about that.
Dr. Sanghavi: So, it was a very interesting session. The session was sponsored by a subcommittee within the NASPGHAN which is the loving name for the long name that you just mentioned for the national pediatric GI society. And that subcommittee is a professional development committee and I co-chair that committee. So, as part of that, we really wanted to do a series on leadership and what skills should people acquire or most importantly use. As part of this series, we talked about emotional IQ, we talked about having difficult conversations and we talked about how to say no. It was a beautiful, well attended session. I think there were over 100 people in the session. Very engaged. But this topic of EQ gathered a lot of interest from a lot of people.
Host: Well I’m sure that it did. So, tell us a little bit about it. what is emotional intelligence and how does it differ from IQ?
Dr. Sanghavi: So, emotional intelligence is the ability to really recognize your own emotions as well as the emotions in somebody else and then use this recognition to control or channel your behaviors as well as to channel your behaviors as well as attitudes towards the other person, once you’ve understood their emotions. Now this is different than intelligence quotient so intelligence quotient thought to be something that you are born with and it’s really not something that a lot of experts believe you can increase exponentially once you’ve passed the age of brain growth, usually about five years of age.
Emotional intelligence on the other hand, is something that you acquire and it’s a skill that can continue to grow throughout your life and that’s the big difference. Emotional intelligence focuses more on understanding emotions in yourself and people around you. Intelligence quotient is simply more problem solving and it’s got to do more with your own personal intelligence.
Host: Well thank you for that answer. So, can you explain for us the four components of emotional intelligence and really what they mean and why it’s especially important in the field of healthcare?
Dr. Sanghavi: Let me start with the second portion first. Why is this especially important in the field of healthcare? Is because we are dealing not just with ourselves, as physicians, we also deal with a team of people that includes nurses, Mas, but that also includes patients and in order to have this entire team function well under the leadership of the physician, I think having EQ is super important.
The four components of EQ are self-awareness, self-management, relationship awareness and relationship management. Some people will use different terms for these four classifications. It’s important to realize that the first two focus on yourself, awareness of your own emotions is self-awareness. Number two, also deals with how you use this awareness to deal with other people. The third part deals with awareness of the emotions of other people and the fourth part deals with how you use this awareness of the emotions of other people in your interactions with other people.
I think this is very important in healthcare because even if you aren’t a leader where you are leading a hospital, a physician is always part of a team and by default, a lot of the decisions end up being the physician being a leader. So, understanding the emotions of other people in your team, the nurses, the MAs, the patients, and then using that understanding to build everybody’s relationship to be on the same level is key for success both clinically as well as in leadership.
Host: What are some ways that individuals in healthcare, could improve in these four different areas. As you said, this is so important for patient care and continuum of care. Tell us what you see, how they can improve.
Dr. Sanghavi: So, the first thing is trying to be consciously aware of your emotions and that’s number one. For example, if you realize that you got angry at the car next to your when they cut in front of you when you are driving; then take a minute to reflect on what your emotion truly is. Is it anger, is it frustration, is it I am getting so late and I am worried that I am going to be late at work. So, number one, continually accurately try and figure our what emotion is it that you are feeling.
Number two, once you have felt that emotion, you then want to try to say to yourself, what would my ideal reaction be. And I’m going to use this example of road rage again. If you want to say, my ideal reaction has to be I don’t want to react at all to the person who cut in front of me. So, neither anger nor heh I’m so happy that you cut in front of me, then you have to practice that emotion. So, over and over and over again, practice that scenario in your head which is when somebody cuts in front of me, I am going to take a deep breath in, let it go, focus on something else.
In the same way, if you know you are going to be in a difficult situation or a difficult conversation with somebody at work and you know that your emotion in a difficult situation tends to be for example, I’m going to cry, then you have to A, recognize that, B, you have to practice a different desired reaction. So, those are ways to build on the personal part of your emotional intelligence.
On the part of understanding emotions in other people, again, practice understanding or putting yourself in other people’s shoes, understanding why people have the reaction they do. Why did somebody get angry when you asked them about a task? Are they overwhelmed? Are they tired? Are they feeling like they are not appreciated? So, trying to think beyond the obvious reasons again is a practice skill. And then number three, four actually is trying to approach that relationship from the point of view of that person’s emotions. Again, it’s a practice. Which means instead of starting a conversation with why did you fail to meet that deadline, it may be better to start the conversation with saying I understand you are overwhelmed. Let’s talk about it and then in the context of that conversation, you could bring up the failed deadline.
So, I think these are some ways in which people can practice increasing their emotional intelligence. The most important of this is awareness of emotions. Look around you. Be aware of people’s emotions. And then constantly practice what you would like your response to be.
Host: My question is when we’re talking about learning empathy, for healthcare professionals; certainly if you are in children’s health or oncology, this empathy is going to be one of the most important aspects or characteristics of somebody who is employed in a situation like that because the parents, the child, this is all something that can be so hard on a family. Tell us where you think this will play such an important role and how you want healthcare professionals, certainly ones that deal with children, directly, to be able to use this topic and be able to learn these techniques.
Dr. Sanghavi: So, I think you already mentioned some of the more obvious ones which is chronic diseases that play a huge emotional tole on not just the patient but the entire family and the family dynamics. For example, cancer. But I think that most pediatricians can use this concept of empathy or emotional intelligence when dealing with “difficult families” or “difficult patients.” These are typically families that do not meet eye to eye with the belief or with the recommendations of the pediatrician and there is a level of frustration on both sides which often then leads to a standoff and the care of the child suffers.
So, I would like to encourage all my pediatrician colleagues to practice using emotional intelligence when you are dealing with a difficult family. I would also like for them to try to use emotional intelligence when dealing with a family that comes across as frustrated or aggressive by taking a step back and trying to think about what else could be playing in the minds of that family.
And lastly, but I think as importantly, when dealing with your colleagues; I think we are all in healthcare, at a very high demand for our time and our emotions and at work, you are there 10, 12, 15 hours constantly demanding your emotions to be given to a child or a patient who you are taking care of. So, I would like the pediatricians to also think about using emotional intelligence towards understanding their colleagues and understanding frustrations as well as being more empathetic with their colleagues.
Host: So important. As we wrap up, is there anything else you would like to share about emotional intelligence and building emotional intelligence in healthcare specifically. Understanding it and the importance of it as we’ve stated here today.
Dr. Sanghavi: Yes, I would say there are many great books that are out there. I encourage people to buy books and I don’t recommend a particular one. I think most that I have read are great. But at least being consciously aware of something called emotional intelligence is the first step towards building better emotional intelligence and that’s really the first step towards building your leadership skill set.
Host: Thank you so much Dr. Sanghavi for sharing this. What an interesting topic. Thank you again for your time with us today and to our audience for listening to Pediatric Insights; Advances and Innovations with Children’s Health, where we explore the latest in pediatric care and research. You can find more information at www.childrens.com and if you found this podcast helpful, please rate and review or share the episode and please follow Children’s Health on your social channels.
Melanie Cole (Host): Today we’re discussing understanding and building emotional intelligence for healthcare professionals and our expert is Dr. Rina Sanghavi. She’s the Director of Neurogastroenterology Program and the Office of Faculty Engagement at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Health in Dallas. This is Pediatric Insights; Advances and Innovations With Children’s Health, where we explore the latest in pediatric care and research. I’m Melanie Cole. Dr. Sanghavi, welcome to the show and before we dive in, what made you interested in and passionate about the topic of emotional intelligence?
Rina M. Sanghavi, MD (Guest): So, a few years ago, I realized that there was a difference between people’s ability to lead and the difference wasn’t so much about how many skills they had, but it was more about how they were able to apply those skills especially to people skills. And then when I went on to get my MBA in Healthcare Management, we studied this topic of emotional intelligence and that’s really what brought it home to me that while IQ intelligence can get you the job, emotional intelligence is even more important in terms of success in the job as well as ability to keep the job and continue to progress forward in your leadership journey.
Host: How interesting. What a fascinating topic today. Dr. Sanghavi, you presented on the topic of emotional intelligence at the annual meeting of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. Tell us a little bit about that.
Dr. Sanghavi: So, it was a very interesting session. The session was sponsored by a subcommittee within the NASPGHAN which is the loving name for the long name that you just mentioned for the national pediatric GI society. And that subcommittee is a professional development committee and I co-chair that committee. So, as part of that, we really wanted to do a series on leadership and what skills should people acquire or most importantly use. As part of this series, we talked about emotional IQ, we talked about having difficult conversations and we talked about how to say no. It was a beautiful, well attended session. I think there were over 100 people in the session. Very engaged. But this topic of EQ gathered a lot of interest from a lot of people.
Host: Well I’m sure that it did. So, tell us a little bit about it. what is emotional intelligence and how does it differ from IQ?
Dr. Sanghavi: So, emotional intelligence is the ability to really recognize your own emotions as well as the emotions in somebody else and then use this recognition to control or channel your behaviors as well as to channel your behaviors as well as attitudes towards the other person, once you’ve understood their emotions. Now this is different than intelligence quotient so intelligence quotient thought to be something that you are born with and it’s really not something that a lot of experts believe you can increase exponentially once you’ve passed the age of brain growth, usually about five years of age.
Emotional intelligence on the other hand, is something that you acquire and it’s a skill that can continue to grow throughout your life and that’s the big difference. Emotional intelligence focuses more on understanding emotions in yourself and people around you. Intelligence quotient is simply more problem solving and it’s got to do more with your own personal intelligence.
Host: Well thank you for that answer. So, can you explain for us the four components of emotional intelligence and really what they mean and why it’s especially important in the field of healthcare?
Dr. Sanghavi: Let me start with the second portion first. Why is this especially important in the field of healthcare? Is because we are dealing not just with ourselves, as physicians, we also deal with a team of people that includes nurses, Mas, but that also includes patients and in order to have this entire team function well under the leadership of the physician, I think having EQ is super important.
The four components of EQ are self-awareness, self-management, relationship awareness and relationship management. Some people will use different terms for these four classifications. It’s important to realize that the first two focus on yourself, awareness of your own emotions is self-awareness. Number two, also deals with how you use this awareness to deal with other people. The third part deals with awareness of the emotions of other people and the fourth part deals with how you use this awareness of the emotions of other people in your interactions with other people.
I think this is very important in healthcare because even if you aren’t a leader where you are leading a hospital, a physician is always part of a team and by default, a lot of the decisions end up being the physician being a leader. So, understanding the emotions of other people in your team, the nurses, the MAs, the patients, and then using that understanding to build everybody’s relationship to be on the same level is key for success both clinically as well as in leadership.
Host: What are some ways that individuals in healthcare, could improve in these four different areas. As you said, this is so important for patient care and continuum of care. Tell us what you see, how they can improve.
Dr. Sanghavi: So, the first thing is trying to be consciously aware of your emotions and that’s number one. For example, if you realize that you got angry at the car next to your when they cut in front of you when you are driving; then take a minute to reflect on what your emotion truly is. Is it anger, is it frustration, is it I am getting so late and I am worried that I am going to be late at work. So, number one, continually accurately try and figure our what emotion is it that you are feeling.
Number two, once you have felt that emotion, you then want to try to say to yourself, what would my ideal reaction be. And I’m going to use this example of road rage again. If you want to say, my ideal reaction has to be I don’t want to react at all to the person who cut in front of me. So, neither anger nor heh I’m so happy that you cut in front of me, then you have to practice that emotion. So, over and over and over again, practice that scenario in your head which is when somebody cuts in front of me, I am going to take a deep breath in, let it go, focus on something else.
In the same way, if you know you are going to be in a difficult situation or a difficult conversation with somebody at work and you know that your emotion in a difficult situation tends to be for example, I’m going to cry, then you have to A, recognize that, B, you have to practice a different desired reaction. So, those are ways to build on the personal part of your emotional intelligence.
On the part of understanding emotions in other people, again, practice understanding or putting yourself in other people’s shoes, understanding why people have the reaction they do. Why did somebody get angry when you asked them about a task? Are they overwhelmed? Are they tired? Are they feeling like they are not appreciated? So, trying to think beyond the obvious reasons again is a practice skill. And then number three, four actually is trying to approach that relationship from the point of view of that person’s emotions. Again, it’s a practice. Which means instead of starting a conversation with why did you fail to meet that deadline, it may be better to start the conversation with saying I understand you are overwhelmed. Let’s talk about it and then in the context of that conversation, you could bring up the failed deadline.
So, I think these are some ways in which people can practice increasing their emotional intelligence. The most important of this is awareness of emotions. Look around you. Be aware of people’s emotions. And then constantly practice what you would like your response to be.
Host: My question is when we’re talking about learning empathy, for healthcare professionals; certainly if you are in children’s health or oncology, this empathy is going to be one of the most important aspects or characteristics of somebody who is employed in a situation like that because the parents, the child, this is all something that can be so hard on a family. Tell us where you think this will play such an important role and how you want healthcare professionals, certainly ones that deal with children, directly, to be able to use this topic and be able to learn these techniques.
Dr. Sanghavi: So, I think you already mentioned some of the more obvious ones which is chronic diseases that play a huge emotional tole on not just the patient but the entire family and the family dynamics. For example, cancer. But I think that most pediatricians can use this concept of empathy or emotional intelligence when dealing with “difficult families” or “difficult patients.” These are typically families that do not meet eye to eye with the belief or with the recommendations of the pediatrician and there is a level of frustration on both sides which often then leads to a standoff and the care of the child suffers.
So, I would like to encourage all my pediatrician colleagues to practice using emotional intelligence when you are dealing with a difficult family. I would also like for them to try to use emotional intelligence when dealing with a family that comes across as frustrated or aggressive by taking a step back and trying to think about what else could be playing in the minds of that family.
And lastly, but I think as importantly, when dealing with your colleagues; I think we are all in healthcare, at a very high demand for our time and our emotions and at work, you are there 10, 12, 15 hours constantly demanding your emotions to be given to a child or a patient who you are taking care of. So, I would like the pediatricians to also think about using emotional intelligence towards understanding their colleagues and understanding frustrations as well as being more empathetic with their colleagues.
Host: So important. As we wrap up, is there anything else you would like to share about emotional intelligence and building emotional intelligence in healthcare specifically. Understanding it and the importance of it as we’ve stated here today.
Dr. Sanghavi: Yes, I would say there are many great books that are out there. I encourage people to buy books and I don’t recommend a particular one. I think most that I have read are great. But at least being consciously aware of something called emotional intelligence is the first step towards building better emotional intelligence and that’s really the first step towards building your leadership skill set.
Host: Thank you so much Dr. Sanghavi for sharing this. What an interesting topic. Thank you again for your time with us today and to our audience for listening to Pediatric Insights; Advances and Innovations with Children’s Health, where we explore the latest in pediatric care and research. You can find more information at www.childrens.com and if you found this podcast helpful, please rate and review or share the episode and please follow Children’s Health on your social channels.