Relationships among emotional intelligence, conscientiousness, and resilience in nurses at Hamadan teaching hospitals, Iran: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

Nurses working in high-stress environments depend substantially on resilience to maintain mental health and professional performance. Emotional intelligence (EI) and conscientiousness are known to be associated with resilience; however, their interrelationships in Iranian hospital nurses have not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationships among EI, conscientiousness, and resilience in nurses at teaching hospitals in Hamadan, Iran.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2025 on 390 nurses from nine teaching hospitals in Hamadan, Iran, using proportional stratified random sampling. Data were collected using the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), the conscientiousness subscale of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), and the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10). Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were conducted using SPSS version 26.

RESULTS

There was a moderately strong positive association between EI and resilience (r = 0.56, p < 0.001) and between conscientiousness and resilience (r = 0.49, p < 0.001). The final regression model, including demographic variables, EI, and conscientiousness, explained 47% of the variance in resilience (R² = 0.47, F(7, 382) = 48.30, p < 0.001), with EI showing the strongest association with resilience.

CONCLUSIONS

EI and conscientiousness are significantly associated with resilience in this sample of nurses. Assessing these psychological resources and evaluating targeted training programs may be useful for supporting resilience in high-stress clinical settings. However, longitudinal and interventional studies are needed to confirm these findings.