PSY 301 Week 2 Emotional Intelligence Development Plan Example

Pause, Reframe, Reach Out: An Emotional Intelligence Development Plan for a Charge Nurse

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

PSY/301: Emotional Intelligence

Week 2 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The charge nurse and the plan are composites written for a model paper; research findings come from the sources listed.

Week 1 identified a clear growth area for Keisha, a composite charge nurse in Phoenix, Arizona: managing frustration on short-staffed shifts and meeting anxious staff with reassurance instead of impatience. This paper builds a six-week plan to strengthen that one skill using research on emotion regulation and on training.

The Target Skill

The skill is narrow and observable: when Keisha feels pressure rising during a busy shift, she will notice it early, respond to staff questions in a calm, helpful tone and offer brief reassurance when a nurse seems anxious. Success means fewer curt exchanges, staff who feel comfortable asking questions and a charge nurse who goes home less drained.

How Emotion Regulation Works

Gross (1998) reviewed research on emotion regulation and proposed a process model: people can influence emotions at different points, by choosing or changing situations, shifting attention, changing how they interpret events or adjusting their responses once an emotion is underway. Strategies used early, before an emotion is fully formed, tend to be more effective than strategies used late.

For Keisha, this suggests acting early: noticing the first signs of stress and reframing situations before frustration builds, rather than trying to hide irritation after it has surfaced.

Reappraisal Versus Suppression

Gross and John (2003) compared two common strategies. Reappraisal, changing the meaning of a situation, was associated with more positive emotion, better relationships and greater well-being. Suppression, hiding emotional expression, was associated with less positive emotion, worse relationships and lower well-being, and it did not reduce the inner experience of the emotion.

Keisha's current approach is largely suppression: she tries to hide stress but it leaks out in tone and sighs. Reappraisal offers a better route. When a new nurse asks a question for the third time, Keisha can reinterpret it as a sign that the nurse is careful and wants to get things right, not as incompetence.

Can These Skills Be Trained?

Mattingly and Kraiger (2019) combined studies of emotional intelligence training in a meta-analysis and found moderate positive effects, suggesting that emotional skills can be improved through structured programs, though effects varied by study design and measurement. The finding supports the idea that Keisha's growth area is not fixed and that regular, deliberate practice can help, especially when it is paired with feedback.

Keisha cannot add nurses to the schedule, but she can change what a third question at the nurses' station means to her.

The Plan

Weeks 1 and 2: noticing. Keisha will set her watch to buzz every two hours during shifts as a cue to check her stress on a scale from one to ten. When it reaches six or higher, she will take three slow breaths before her next interaction with anyone. She will log each check in a pocket notebook.

Weeks 3 and 4: reframing. Before each shift, she will write one reframing sentence for common triggers, such as "Questions mean my nurses care about safety." During shifts, when she notices irritation, she will repeat the sentence before responding.

Weeks 5 and 6: reaching out. Keisha will practice a brief check-in when a nurse seems stressed, such as "This is a tough shift. What do you need from me?" She will aim for at least two check-ins per shift.

Throughout, she will keep the guilt-free mindset that slips are expected and provide useful information about which situations are hardest.

Measuring Progress

Keisha will track three indicators: her logged stress ratings and pauses, the number of curt exchanges she notices each shift and feedback from the two nurses who rated her in Week 1, who will answer three short questions every two weeks about her tone and approachability. At the end of six weeks, she will retake the Week 1 self-assessment and compare results with her starting point.

A Sample Shift Using the Plan

Consider a Tuesday in week four. The unit is down two nurses. At ten in the morning, Keisha's watch buzzes; she rates her stress at seven and takes three slow breaths. Ten minutes later, a new nurse asks for the third time how to program an infusion pump. Keisha feels irritation rise, repeats her reframing sentence, "Questions mean my nurses care about safety," and walks the nurse through the steps, adding, "Good call checking before you start." Later, she notices a nurse looking overwhelmed and asks, "This is a tough shift. What do you need from me?" The nurse asks for help with a discharge, and Keisha reassigns a lower-acuity patient. In her notebook that night she records two pauses, one reframe and two check-ins, and one curt moment she caught too late.

Why This Order

The plan builds skills in sequence. Noticing comes first because reappraisal is hard to use without catching the emotion early. Reframing comes next because it changes the interpretation that fuels irritation. Reaching out comes last because it requires enough calm to attend to others' needs. Each stage makes the next easier, and skipping ahead would leave the later habits without a base.

Anticipating Obstacles

On the most chaotic shifts, the watch cue may be ignored. Keisha will ask a trusted nurse to give a quiet signal if she sounds sharp. Fatigue also undermines regulation, so she will protect sleep before her runs of back-to-back twelve-hour shifts. If stress remains high despite the plan, she can use her hospital's free and confidential employee assistance program.

Expected Benefits

For her team, a calmer charge nurse should make it easier to ask questions, which supports patient safety because errors are more often caught when nurses speak up. For Keisha, using reappraisal rather than suppression may reduce the exhaustion she carries home, consistent with research linking reappraisal to well-being.

Conclusion

Keisha's plan targets one skill, managing emotions under pressure, with strategies supported by research on emotion regulation: early noticing, reappraisal rather than suppression and supportive check-ins. Evidence that emotional intelligence can be trained supports the effort, and feedback from coworkers gives a check on progress beyond her own impressions.

References

Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271-299. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271

Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348-362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.348

Mattingly, V., & Kraiger, K. (2019). Can emotional intelligence be trained? A meta-analytical investigation. Human Resource Management Review, 29(2), 140-155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2018.03.002