Emotional intelligence among medical students: a mixed methods study from Chennai, India

Vijayaprasad Gopichandran,Subashini Sundararajan

doi:10.1186/s12909-018-1213-3

Abstract

BackgroundEmotional Intelligence is the ability of a person to understand and respond to one’s own and others’ emotions and use this understanding to guide one’s thoughts and actions. To assess the level of emotional intelligence of medical students in a medical college in Chennai and to explore their understanding of the role of emotions in medical practice.MethodsA quantitative, cross sectional, questionnaire based, survey was conducted among 207 medical students in a college in Chennai, India using the Quick Emotional Intelligence Self Assessment Test and some hypothetical emotional clinical vignettes. This was followed by a qualitative moderated fish-bowl discussion to elicit the opinion of medical students on role of emotions in the practice of medicine.ResultsThe mean score of Emotional Intelligence was 107.58 (SD 16.44) out of a maximum possible score of 160. Students who went to government schools for high school education had greater emotional intelligence than students from private schools (p = 0.044) and women were more emotionally intelligent in their response to emotional vignettes than men (p = 0.056). The fish bowl discussion highlighted several positive and negative impacts of emotions in clinical care. The students concluded at the end of the discussion that emotions are inevitable in the practice of medicine and a good physician should know how to handle them.ConclusionsMedical students, both men and women, had good level of emotional intelligence in the college that was studied. Students from collectivist social settings like government high schools have better emotional intelligence, which may indicate that a collectivist, community oriented medical education can serve the same purpose. Though students have diverse opinions on the role of emotions in clinical care, cognitive reflection exercises can help them understand its importance.

Highlights

Emotional Intelligence is the ability of a person to understand and respond to one’s own and others’ emotions and use this understanding to guide one’s thoughts and actions
The students are admitted to the college through three channels – firstly, from a merit list generated from the marks obtained in the school-leaving exam conducted by the State Government, secondly from a merit list generated from an eligibility test conducted at the national level and thirdly a dedicated quota for children of employees who have a low income and are insured under the social welfare health insurance scheme of the country
We developed a survey instrument containing the following components: (1) Socio-demographic characteristics of the student including age, gender, nativity and type of high school education (2) Quick Emotional Intelligence Self Assessment Test (3) Four clinical vignettes of emotional situations and responses to these vignettes

Summary

Introduction

Emotional Intelligence is the ability of a person to understand and respond to one’s own and others’ emotions and use this understanding to guide one’s thoughts and actions. Emotional intelligence may be defined as the ability of a person to understand and respond to one’s own and others’ emotions and use this ability to guide one’s thoughts and actions [1]. Emotional intelligence is essential for all human interactions. The ‘emic’ perspective of emotional intelligence helps a person understand and regulate their own emotions and use them for effective. A profession that thrives on human interactions, emotional intelligence is of great importance [3]. There is increasing interest in the recent times on the importance of emotional intelligence for effective clinical practice.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion