Emotional intelligence and perceived stress in healthcare students: a multi-institutional, multi-professional survey
Open Access
- 17 September 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in BMC Medical Education
- Vol. 9 (1), 1-8
- https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-9-61
Abstract
Background: Emotional intelligence (EI) is increasingly discussed as having a potential role in medicine, nursing, and other healthcare disciplines, both for personal mental health and professional practice. Stress has been identified as being high for students in healthcare courses. This study investigated whether EI and stress differed among students in four health professions (dental, nursing, graduate mental health workers, medical) and whether there was evidence that EI might serve as a buffer for stress. Method: The Schutte Emotional Intelligence and the Perceived Stress scale instruments were administered to four groups of healthcare students in their first year of study in both the autumn and summer terms of the 2005-6 academic year. The groups were undergraduate dental, nursing and medical students, and postgraduate mental health workers. Results: No significant differences were found between males and females nor among professional groups for the EI measure. Dental students reported significantly higher stress than medical students. EI was found to be only moderately stable in test-retest scores. Some evidence was found for EI as a possible factor in mediating stress. Students in different health profession courses did not show significant differences in Emotional Intelligence. Conclusion: While stress and EI showed a moderate relationship, results of this study do not allow the direction of relationship to be determined. The limitations and further research questions raised in this study are discussed along with the need for refinement of the EI construct and measures, particularly if Emotional Intelligence were to be considered as a possible selection criterion, as has been suggested by some authors.This publication has 27 references indexed in Scilit:
- Emotional intelligence: a review of the literature with specific focus on empirical and epistemological perspectivesJournal of Clinical Nursing, 2007
- Personality traits and types predict medical school stress: a six-year longitudinal and nationwide studyMedical Education, 2007
- Predicting stress in pre‐registration nursing studentsBritish Journal of Health Psychology, 2007
- Emotional intelligence: A meta-analytic investigation of predictive validity and nomological netJournal of Vocational Behavior, 2004
- Emotional intelligence in nursing workJournal of Advanced Nursing, 2004
- First year medical student stress and coping in a problem-based learning medical curriculumMedical Education, 2004
- Well-being in an academic environmentMedical Education, 2004
- Helping medical students identify their emotional intelligenceMedical Education, 2004
- Can we improve on how we select medical students?Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2002
- Distress, stress and coping in first‐year student nursesJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1997