Introduction: Individuals with high levels of emotional intelligence have the ability to recognize, express, manage, and control emotions; they are also better at managing occupational stress. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to study the relationship between the emotional intelligence levels of radiologic technologists and the stress they experience at work in the radiology department of the UMCL Central Emergency Unit. In addition, we wanted to research the impact of gender and work experience on the emotional intelligence levels of radiologic technologists. Methods: For the theoretical part of the master's thesis, we reviewed the relevant literature in the MEDLINE and CINAHL international databases as well as the COBIB.SI online catalogue. We then employed the descriptive method, classifications, compilations, and the synthetic method. Quantitative data for the empirical part of the thesis were obtained through a cross-sectional study using a questionnaire that consisted of two parts: an emotional competence self-assessment questionnaire and an instrument for assessing work limitations as well as occupational stress and its adverse effects. Results: The study involved 40 radiologic technologists (20 men and 20 women) with an average working age of 13 years, who spent at least one third of their working time at the UMCL Central Emergency Unit. The results showed that the respondents experienced high levels of stress as they were constantly faced with demanding work, large numbers of patients and their responsibility, shocking and unpleasant scenes, which required strong management of the emotions and emotions of patients, their relatives, colleagues and other health care professionals. In addition, the amount of stress they received was due to shift work, repetitive movements, heavy lifting, the unequal treatment of employees, and lack of staff. We found that radiologic technologists mostly described themselves as having high emotional intelligence, as 71.11 per cent of the statements were answered as either "mostly true" or "always true". The respondents scored the lowest on the ability to recognize and understand emotions, and the highest on the ability to manage emotions. The study found that older radiologic technologists had lower levels of emotional intelligence, and that female radiologic technologists did not have a significantly higher emotional intelligence mean scores than their male counterparts. Discussion and conclusion: Although no correlation was found between emotional intelligence and occupational stress, we believe our research affirms the importance of both emotional intelligence and the awareness of occupational stressors. Training and developing emotional intelligence through education would help the respondents to better manage positive and negative emotions, which would improve their relationships with patients and colleagues, improve health and stress resistance, as well as employee well-being.
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