Abstract: Objective: To investigate the humanistic caring ability and emotional intelligence of psychiatric nurses and analyze the influencing factors of humanistic caring ability. Method: Totally 289 psychiatric nurses in a mental hospital in Henan province were investigated by general information scale, Caring Ability Inventory and Emotional Intelligence Scale. Results: The psychiatric nurses’ emotional intelligence score was (112.58±12.30), and the humanistic caring ability score was (167.49±18.16). The total score of emotional intelligence was positively correlated with the total score of humanistic caring ability (r=0.466, P<0.001). Regulating self-emotion, emotional utilization and regulating others’ emotions are the influencing factors of the humanistic caring ability of psychiatric nurses. Together with working years and sex, they explained 35.2% of the variability of nurses' humanistic caring ability. Conclusion: The emotional intelligence and humanistic caring ability of psychiatric nurses are at a low level. Nursing managers should improve the emotional intelligence of psychiatric nurses by education and training, so as to create a better humanistic nursing atmosphere.

Key words: psychiatric nurses; emotional intelligence; humanistic care