Background: The study explored the role of emotional intelligence (EI) on employees’ perceived wellbeing and empowerment, as well as their performance, by measuring their quality of care.Methods: The baseline data for the present project was collected from 78 staff of a Victorian aged care organization in Australia. Self-administered surveys were used to assess participants’ emotional intelligence, general well-being, psychological empowerment, quality of care, and demographic characteristics. The model fit was assessed using structural equation modelling by AMOS (v 24) software.Results: The evaluated model confirmed that emotional intelligence predicts the employees’ psychological empowerment, wellbeing, and quality of care in a statistically significant way.Conclusions: The current research indicates that employees with higher EI will more likely deliver a better quality of patient care. Present research extends the current knowledge of the psychological empowerment and wellbeing of employees with a particular focus on emotional intelligence as an antecedent in an under-investigated setting like aged care setting in Australia.

Background: Sudden changes in clinical practice and the altered ability to care for patients due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been associated with moral distress and mental health concerns in healthcare workers internationally. This study aimed to investigate the severity, prevalence, and predictors of moral distress experienced by Australian healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A nationwide, voluntary, anonymous, single time-point, online survey of self-identified frontline healthcare workers was conducted between 27th August and 23rd October 2020. Participants were recruited through health organisations, professional associations, or colleges, universities, government contacts, and national media. Results: 7846 complete responses were received from nurses (39.4%), doctors (31.1%), allied health staff (16.7%), or other roles (6.7%). Many participants reported moral distress related to resource scarcity (58.3%), wearing PPE (31.7%) limiting their ability to care for patients, exclusion of family going against their values (60.2%), and fear of letting co-workers down if they were infected (55.0%). Many personal and workplace predictors of moral distress were identified, with those working in certain frontline areas, metropolitan locations, and with prior mental health diagnoses at particular risk of distress. Moral distress was associated with increased risk of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and burnout. Conversely, feeling appreciated by the community protected against these risks in healthcare workers. Conclusions: Safeguarding healthcare workforces during crises is important for both patient safety and workforce longevity. Targeted interventions are required to prevent or minimise moral distress and associated mental health concerns in healthcare workers during COVID-19 and other crises.

Background: The healthcare sector is acknowledged as a complex and challenging field. Increasingly, research highlights the importance of healthcare workers’ internal social and emotional skills in managing their well-being and enhancing their capacity to provide patient care and support to colleagues. Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been identified as a key factor in improving the health and performance of healthcare workers, leading to the implementation of numerous programs aimed at enhancing EI.Objective: This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the effectiveness of EI training interventions among healthcare workers, focusing on various intervention designs and their impact on EI improvement.Methods: The review encompassed 17 longitudinal studies, each implementing EI training interventions for healthcare workers aged 18 and over. The studies employed a variety of research designs.Results: All studies demonstrated an increase in EI following the intervention. However, methodological limitations within these studies might have led to an overestimation of the actual effects of the interventions.Conclusion: While the reviewed studies indicate a positive trend in EI enhancement post-intervention, the potential overestimation of effects due to methodological flaws necessitates caution. The findings underline the need for future research to explore the optimal duration and delivery methods for EI training in healthcare settings.Systematic review registration: The systematic review and meta-analysis have been pre-registered with PROSPERO [CRD42023393760]. Further details can be accessed at: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42023393760.

Background: Several studies have found positive correlation between flatfeet and increased body mass in children. One study, utilizing a differing method of foot posture assessment, found the inverse. The purpose of this study was to further explore the relationship between children's foot posture and body mass, utilizing the foot posture index in a large study population, as opposed to the footprint based measures of most previous studies.Methods: Data for both foot posture index (FPI) and body mass index (BMI) for healthy children were acquired from five previous studies. The amalgamated dataset comprised observations for both BMI and FPI‐6 in 728 children aged from three to 15 years. Three FPI‐6 scores levels defined the range of flatfeet detected: FPI‐6 ≥ +6; FPI‐6 ≥ +8; FPI‐6 ≥ +10. BMI cut‐points were used to define overweight for each age group.Results: In the study population of 728 children, flatfeet (FPI ≥ +6) were found in 290 (40 %) cases and non‐flatfeet in 438 (60 %) cases. FPI ≥ +8 yielded flatfeet in 142 (20 %) cases and FPI ≥ +10 yielded flatfeet in 41 (5 %) cases. Whilst 272 (37 %) children were overweight, only 74 (10.1 %) of the overweight children had flatfeet (FPI ≥ +6), which diminished to 36 (4.9 %) at FPI ≥ +8, and 9 (1.2 %) at FPI ≥ +10.Significant and moderate correlation was found between BMI and age (r = 0.384, p < 0.01). Very weak, but significant, correlation was found between BMI and FPI (r = −0.077, p < 0.05). Significant mean differences between gender and BMI were found (t‐test = 2.56, p < 0.05). There was strong correlation between FPI scores on left and right sides (r = 0.899, p < 0.01).Conclusions: This study found no association between increased body mass and flatfeet in children, a finding in contrast to that repeatedly concluded by many previous studies. Whilst properties of the FPI and BMI are limiting, these findings question the concern about children's increased body mass as a specific influence on (flatter) foot posture, and also the validity of footprint versus anatomically based foot posture measures.