Evaluation of a piloted programme of development on the Emotional Intelligence, wellbeing and communication skills of medical students

The concept of EI was introduced by Mayer & Salovoy (1993) in the early 1990's who define it as " a type of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and other's emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions." Since the 1990's there has also emerged an increasing recognition in the medical education literature that EI skills are important for medical students and doctors. Much of the focus has been on interpersonal aspects of EI (such as empathy) when dealing and communicating with patients and colleagues; and intrapersonal EI (e.g. emotional self-awareness) when working in a highly stressful working environment (Carothers & Gregory, 2000). It has therefore been proposed that improved levels of EI aid in the acquisition of good communication skills, and that EI should be encouraged and developed for intending doctors. This has lead to debate on the implementation of EI as part of a medical degree component and/or as part of the selection process for medical students (Carothers & Gregory, 2000). The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of a piloted “Leadership, Emotional Development and Personal Awareness” intervention on the emotional intelligence and psychological well being of 3rd year medical students’. DESIGN A Quasi- experiemental non- randomised investigation based on the frameworks for experimental study design described by Campbell and Stanley (1966) and Fraenel and Wallen (2003). Study groups were assigned using a nonrandomised method. One of the clinical rotations comprising approximately 50 3rd year medical students were assigned to the piloted intervention group by the Director of Medical Studies as a part of the formal 3 / 7 curriculum. As part of the evaluation of this pilot, students within this group were asked to volunteer to participate in a variety of assessments four times over 12 months (details of assessment tools provided below). 34 students within this group volunteered to be part of the investigation (intervention group). The same proportion of students volunteers (36) were recruited from the rest of the year group and also completed these assessments (at the same time). These students were assigned to the control group. METHODOLOGY A variety of reliable, valid and widely used self-assessed investigatory tools were completed in October 07 (Prior to intervention/baseline) and in February 08 (three months after intervention began). This data and analysis will be presented at the conference. Further assessments will be completed in May 08 (immediately after the intervention finishes) and October - November 08 (6 months post intervention). The tools completed were the • Bar-On Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ-i) (Bar-On, 1997) • Life Stressors and Social Resources Inventory (LISRES-Y) (Moos, Fenn & Billings, 1988) • Beck Depression Inventory Version 2 (BDI-II) (Beck, Rial & Ricketts, 1974) • Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) (Beck & Steer, 1993) • The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) Data from these assessments tools and statistical analysis (independent t-tests and correlational analysis) has been completed at the baseline phase and 3 months after the intervention began. This data will be presented at the conference.