Teaching Emotional Intelligence
Becoming More Emotionally Intelligent Can Have Multiple Benefits
by Eliza Cossar, PharmD, PGY 1 Pharmacy Practice Resident, Baptist Memorial Hospital – North Mississippi PGY-1 Resident
Health professions programs have spent centuries perfecting an evolving curriculum to produce competent health professionals. Students spend years completing challenging courses to learn about the human body and how to care for patients. These classes are important for developing clinical expertise, but the need to teach emotional intelligence is becoming more apparent. Salovey and Mayer define emotional intelligence as the ability to accurately monitor and discern emotions within oneself and others and to use this information to guide one's thoughts and actions.1 These skills provide professionals with the ability to create better relationships with patients, coworkers, and themselves, potentially leading to better care and improved health outcomes.
There are multiple ways to measure emotional intelligence. Ability-based assessments measure a person's theoretical understanding of emotions and can be used in cases where students already have a foundational understanding of emotions and how they work. The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT V2.0) is the most popular ability-based assessment available from Multi-Health Systems of Toronto, Canada. The Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory (Genos EI) is a behavior-based assessment with three versions. Genos EI provides a report with scoring that identifies strengths and opportunities for development. Another type of assessment uses trait-based measurement. The Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) is a self-reported assessment that may lead to bias but allows students to reflect on past behaviors as they learn more about emotional intelligence.
Several studies have been conducted to show the relevance of emotional intelligence in students and health professionals, including studies conducted at nursing, pharmacy, dental, and medical schools.2-6 The studies have examined the correlation between emotional intelligence and patient expression, academic success, professional performance, and personal well-being.
One study found that medical students with higher trait emotional intelligence, measured by the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire short form (TEIQue-SF), were more likely to experience stress during unfamiliar surgical scenarios, but they were also more likely to have a faster recovery when compared to their lower trait emotional intelligence peers.2 Health professionals are inevitably going to be faced with stressful situations that are foreign to them. Teaching emotional intelligence in school could potentially assist professionals in better handling that stress.
It is no secret in the healthcare community that a professional's attitude can have a direct effect on a patient's attitude. This can shape how a patient feels about a provider, disease, medication, outcome, treatment strategy, and their overall feelings toward health care in general. A negative opinion about the care received or the provider can lead to suboptimal outcomes.3 Another study explored doctors' attachment styles and their emotional intelligence effected patients’ emotional expressions during primary care consultations.3 The physician’s emotional intelligence was shown to have a significant correlation with patients' emotional expression. The relationship between a patient and provider is one of the most crucial aspects of patient care. By enhancing one's emotional intelligence, relationships with patients can be strengthened.
Some questions that might come to mind when contemplating educating students about emotional intelligence are: what is the best instructional strategy? How can emotional intelligence be assessed? How does one teach a skill that seems to be inherent? Colleagues at Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences created a study to determine whether a quantitative tool could be used to measure social-emotional competence and whether social-emotional competence can be developed during a didactic course. A the beginning of the course, students completed the Social Emotional Development Inventory and then participated in mock patient consultations, interactions intended to get students familiar with patient encounters and evaluate their clinical and communication skills. After the assessments and mock interactions, the students showed improvement in both their self-reflection as well as peer assessments of social-emotional competence when comparing the first assessment to the second assessment, demonstrating that role-playing exercises may be a useful method to both evaluate and develop emotional competence in students.4 These interactions also give the instructor an opportunity provide feedback as well as foster student self-reflection, allowing students to assess their behavior and consider what they could have done better.
A critical review of the literature provided specific guidelines for the development and implementation of emotional intelligence training programs that can be employed by schools. To create successful emotional intelligence training programs, six key characteristics were identified: 1) articulating clear objectives and outcomes, 2) the educational context of the program, 3) fully integrating the content throughout the curriculum, 4) direct application of emotional intelligence, 5) trainer/faculty development, and 6) appropriately evaluating the program.7 They determined that incorporating emotional intelligence fully in the curriculum rather than providing instruction in a stand-alone seminar or workshop is more beneficial because students view it as an integral part of their education. They suggest that data be pulled during skills and laboratory assessments when incorporating these lessons to be able to understand their benefit fully. The authors also suggest interprofessional collaboration with other programs, including students outside of the health professions, so that the perspectives of a wider group of learners can be leveraged.7
Teaching methods and curricula must evolve and change. Emotional intelligence has not historically been seen as an essential skill to be taught in health professional programs. It is important, however, to look at new data to determine how programs can produce the best health professionals possible. Teaching emotional intelligence and giving students opportunities to practice these skills may have positive benefits for patients, interprofessional teams, and clinician well-being.
References
1. Mayer JD, Salovey P, Caruso DR. Emotional intelligence: new ability or eclectic traits? Am Psychol. 2008; 63(6):503-17. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.63.6.503.
2. Arora S, Russ S, Petrides KV, Sirimanna P, Aggarwal R, Darzi A, Sevdalis N. Emotional intelligence and stress in medical students performing surgical tasks. Acad Med. 2011; 86(10):1311-7. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e31822bd7aa.
3. Cherry MG, Fletcher I, Berridge D, O'Sullivan H. Do doctors' attachment styles and emotional intelligence influence patients' emotional expressions in primary care consultations? An exploratory study using multilevel analysis. Patient Educ Couns. 2018; 101(4):659-664. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2017.10.017. Epub 2017 Nov 6.
4. Galal S, Carr-Lopez S, Seal CR, Scott AN, Lopez C. Development and assessment of social and emotional competence through simulated patient consultations. Am J Pharm Educ. 2012; 76(7): 132. doi: 10.5688/ajpe767132.
5. Galal S, Vyas D, Mayberry J, Rogan EL, Patel S, Ruda S. Use of Standardized Patient Simulations to Assess Impact of Motivational Interviewing Training on Social⁻Emotional Development. Pharmacy (Basel). 2018; 6(3): 65. doi: 10.3390/pharmacy6030065.
6. Lea RG, Davis SK, Mahoney B, Qualter P. Does Emotional Intelligence Buffer the Effects of Acute Stress? A Systematic Review. Front Psychol. 2019; 10: 810. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00810.
7. Zeidner M, Roberts RD, and Matthews G. Can emotional intelligence be schooled? A critical review. Educational Psychologist 2002; 37(4): 215-231. doi: 10.1207/S15326985EP3704_2
8. Butler L, Park SK, Vyas D, Cole JD, Haney JS, Marrs JC, Williams E. Evidence and Strategies for Including Emotional Intelligence in Pharmacy Education. Am J Pharm Educ. 2022; 86(10): 8674. doi: 10.5688/ajpe8674.