Changes in Emotional-Social Intelligence, Caring, Leadership and Moral Judgment during Health Science Education Programs

Abstract

In addition to having academic knowledge and clinical skills, health professionals need to be caring, ethical practitioners able to understand the emotional concerns of their patients and to effect change. The purpose of this study was to determine whether emotional-social intelligence, caring, leadership and moral judgment of health science students change from the beginning to the end of their programs. Students from nursing, bachelor of health science and two physical therapy programs completed self-report questionnaires to evaluate emotional-social intelligence [BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory: Short (EQ-i:S)], caring [Caring Ability Inventory (CAI)] and leadership [Self-Assessment Leadership Inventory] at the beginning and end of their programs. Students in three of the programs also completed a test of moral decision-making [Defining Issues Test (DIT-2)] at both time points. Two-way analyses of variance (program versus time) demonstrated significant time effects for the total score of EQ-i:S, the Knowing subscale of CAI and the N2 score of the DIT-2. There were no major differences between programs. It can be concluded that health science students show small improvements in emotional-social intelligence, caring and moral judgment from the beginning to the end of their educational programs.