Abstract
BackgroundProfessional development of public health leaders requires a form of instruction which is competency-based to help them develop the abilities to address complex and evolving demands of health care systems. Concurrently, emotional intelligence (EI) is a key to organisational success. Our aim was twofold: i) to assess the relationship between the level of self-assessed public health and EI competencies among Master of European Public Health (MEPH) students and graduates at Maastricht University, and; ii) to determine the relationship between different groups of public health competencies and specific EI skills.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted including all recent MEPH graduates and students from 2009–2012, out of 67 eligible candidates N = 51 were contacted and N = 33 responded (11 males and 22 females; overall response: 64.7%).Two validated tools were employed: i) public health competencies self-assessment questionnaire, and; ii) Assessing Emotions Scale.ResultsFemales scored higher than males in all seven domains of the self-assessed key public health competencies (NS) and emotional intelligence competences (P = 0.022). Overall, the mean value of public health competencies was the lowest in students with “staff” preferences and the highest among students with mixed job preferences (P < 0.001). There was evidence of a correlation between the overall public health competencies and the overall emotional intelligence competencies (r = 0.61, P < 0.001).ConclusionsThe study shows a positive correlation between public health specific competencies and EI attributes. It can contribute to the improvement of the educational content of PH curricula by rising awareness through self-assessment and supporting the identification of further educational needs related to leadership.
Highlights
Professional development of public health leaders requires a form of instruction which is competency-based to help them develop the abilities to address complex and evolving demands of health care systems
Leadership development has so far not been a part of the curriculum, the question arises whether we develop leaders who will be able to meet the complex challenges of contemporary public health
Females scored higher than males in all seven domains of the self-assessed key public health competencies, but this gender-difference was statistically significant for the “professionalism” competency only (P = 0.04)
Summary
Professional development of public health leaders requires a form of instruction which is competency-based to help them develop the abilities to address complex and evolving demands of health care systems. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a key to organisational success. The Institute of Medicine stated already years ago that the “the need for leaders is too great to leave their emergence to chance” [1] and, public health organisations should actively engage in developing leaders at every level [2]. EI refers to the cooperative combination of intelligence and emotion that influence one’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures [9]
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