Comparing emotional intelligence between would-be and practicing medical professionals of Kathmandu

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to know own and others’ emotions, manage own emotions and motivate self, and also to behave others according to their emotional state. It is a set of skills that contribute to accurate appraisal and expression of emotions [1]. It also involves effective regulation of emotion in self and others. EI is helpful to use the feelings to motivate, plan, and achieve in one’s life. EI has four components according to Mayer and Salovey – perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions [2]. Intuitively, it can be safely said that medical professionals need more EI at work who deal with patients, their caregivers, and relatives.

Patients can choose own doctors. They do not want those who are irritated or cold. So, doctors need to have compassion, empathy, patience, and regard for patients' feelings [3]. Health professionals can remain motivated if they are emotionally intelligent. They also can  value human feelings. Emotionally intelligent medical professionals can help their organization's productivity growth. Emotionally intelligent people solve problems adaptively and quicker to adjust [1]. EI in medical students predicts their performance regarding communication and interpersonal sensitivity [4]. Doctors’ EI has been seen to correlate to less burnout and more job satisfaction [5].

Emotionally intelligent nurses are self-compassionate [6] and they show higher organizational commitment [7] and work engagement [8]. Emotionally intelligent people see themselves as confident. Nurses in the intensive care unit who are trained EI have better health after training [9]. Among other medical professionals, emotionally intelligent pharmacists can have better patient compliance [10].

EI is gaining more popularity but it has not been researched in Nepal. How would EI be related to various factors like family size, income, and age? How is it affected by variables like family-type, religion, education, and ethnicity? Such research questions became an inspiration. This study has looked at the relationship between various demographic variables and EI among employees of hospitals. All those who work in the hospital have been considered medical professionals because more or less, everybody is related to patient and their conditions during their stay in hospital. Since EI has been thought very essential by now, the findings from this research can be helpful to gain insights and take practical decisions in hospital for recruitment to interventions.

Hypotheses

•  Marital status affects EI.

•  Family type affects EI.

•  Gender affects EI.

•  Age and EI are correlated.

•  Income and EI are correlated.

•  Family size and EI are correlated.

•  Age and income are correlated.

•  Religious affiliation affects EI.

•  EI for would-be (studying) and practicing medical professionals is different.

•  Technical and non-technical professionals are differently emotionally intelligent.

•  Would-be and practicing professionals are differently emotionally intelligent.

•  The educational level makes a difference in EI scores.

•  Ethnicity makes difference in EI.

•  Nature of job (or profession) has an effect on EI.

The survey research design was used. It was cross-sectional in that people from various genders, education levels, positions, and ethnicities were used. Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT) was used. It consists of 33 items with 5th, 28th, and 33rd items reverse scored. Lately, SSEIT has been called Assessing Emotions Scale (AES) [11]. It measures four aspects - appraisal, expression, regulation, and utilization of emotions. Scores can range from 33 to 165.

Data were collected conveniently from six private and governmental hospitals of Kathmandu. As shown in Table 1, 10 were doctors, 73 were nurses, and some of them were non-technical staff of hospitals. The participants filled up the questionnaire at their workplace. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25.

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Department of Psychology and Philosophy Ethics Committee in TriChandra Campus had approved the proposal for research.

There is no difference between married and unmarried professionals in terms of EI. Marriage does not seem to affect EI as a previous study has established [12]. There is no difference between participants living in joint or nuclear families either. Nature of family does not affect EI either. Gender affects EI. Female professionals are more emotionally intelligent. This finding is consistent with previous research [13]. Being technical or non-technical does not affect EI. Would-be professionals (i.e. interns) are less emotionally intelligent. Religion affects EI, so does educational level. Ethnicity does not affect EI, but professions affect it. There is an insignificant correlation between age and EI, and income and EI. Family size and EI are not correlated. The findings are consistent with earlier findings like female participants are better at EI scores [14]. In terms of subscales, practicing professionals are not significantly different in terms of the perception of emotions but are significantly different in terms of managing own emotions, managing others' emotions, and utilization of emotions. A probable reason for these differences is the lack of experience.

The findings may not be generalizable because the sample size is small and sampling is convenient. The questionnaire got filled up hastily. So, response sets might be present. Even a few, non-technical staff (for example administrative staff) have been included as medical professionals.

In the future, researches can be carried out among other professionals. This research overlooked the subscales' correlation with demographic variables. So, research can look at how they related to various demographic variables in the future.

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