| Study | Design | Sample and setting | Main findings |
| Ohlson & Anderson (2015) [15] | Quantitative descriptive | 87 Nurse Managers. | The mean total of EI score of nurse managers is 98.1, indicating that the EI of them is normal. |
| Prufeta (2017) [16] | Cross-sectional | 38 nurse managers recruited in the Northeast | Mean EI scores among nurse managers were average. Nurse managers with less than 2 years of experience had statistically significant lower “using emotions” branch score and strategic EI. Nurse managers with a masters’ degree in nursing scored significantly higher in using emotions branch score than did those with a masters’ degree in a related field. |
| Muhurji & Yussef (2017) | Cross-sectional | 125 nurse manager in Saudi Arabia | Two thirds of the nurses’ managers (64%) had adequate emotional intelligence, as they achieved above average scores on the scale. |
| Bikmoradi et al. (2018) [13] | Cross-sectional | 370 nursing managers in Iran | Nursing managers had emotional intelligence mean score of 80.46 which was at appropriate level. Emotional intelligence of nursing managers had a positive and significant correlation with people-oriented leadership style and in contrast had not correlation with task-oriented leadership style. |
| Kabeel (2016) | Cross-sectional study | 48 nurse managers | The mean score of emotional intelligence is 49.8 out of 61. The highest mean scores of emotional intelligent dimensions was self-emotional appraisal 12.58 out of 15. |
| Ezzatabadi et al. (2012) | Cross-sectional correlational study | 38 nurse managers | The level of EI among nurse managers was positive. There was a direct, positive significant relationship was observed between EI among nurse managers and patient satisfaction. |
| Vahidi et al. (2016) [17] | Cross-sectional | 338 nurses in Iran | The level of emotional intelligence among nurses was 235.8 which is less than average (270). |
| Ezzatabadi et al. (2012) | Cross-sectional study | 193 nurses in Iran | The level of emotional intelligence among nurses was 3.86 out of 5.0. The nurses’ emotional intelligence has a direct effect on the hospital services quality. |
| Konstantinou et al. (2017) [14] | Cross-sectional study | 585 nurses in Cyprus | The EI total mean score was 184.30. The nurses aged 36–50 years old had the highest EI scores with a positive effect on the EI coming from years of service, leadership positions, being married and having children. |