Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Clinical Competencies of Nursing Students in Tabriz Nursing and Midwifery School

Preparing students to take over job responsibilities is one of the most challenging duties of nursing schools. The focus of nursing education should be on helping students to achieve high levels of competence in nursing care and identify factors for reinforcing it. Since desirable results have not been reported on clinical competencies of nursing students, achieving skills to control their emotions could be effective. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and clinical competencies. In this correlational study, all nursing students in semesters 6, 7 and 8 were studied after determining the sample size in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The data were collected using three questionnaires of demographic data, the Emotional Intelligence Sharing – Sybrya and a short clinical competence. The data analysis was done through descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS 18. The results of the present study showed that the total EI score and clinical competence of students was more than moderate. The relationship between total EI and clinical competence was significant. Among the subscales of EI, there was a significant relationship between social skills and clinical competence. The relationship between the total emotional intelligence score and clinical competence of students in this study indicated the necessity and importance of emotions in decision-making to act properly within a clinical setting. Therefore, taking part in courses designed for learning skills of emotion perception and stress management in the workplace seem to be essential.