Emotional Intelligence Scores of Diverse First Year Advanced Practice Nursing Students

Abstract

There is a growing interest among schools and universities to look beyond traditional cognitive measures in screening and predicting academic success. Guided by the Four Branches of Emotional Intelligence (EI) by Mayer and Salovey, a prospective and descriptive survey study design is conducted on all first year students enrolled in the advanced practice nursing (APN) programs. Students were to complete the SSEIT in their first year and again at the last semester of their programs. This paper will describe the results of Phase One data on the EI scores of first year APN students. Preliminary findings showed that the mean baseline EI scores of the first year APN students was 134.2±12, indicating high EI. Students in the nurse anesthesia program have then highest EI scores among all the programs. There was no correlation noted between EI scores, and prerequisite and cumulative grade point averages of first year APN students Keywords: non-cognitive measures, emotional intelligence, advanced practice nursing students, academic success 1. Background In addition to cognitive measures, schools and universities began to explore the role of emotions and emotional intelligence as predictors of academic success and performance. Collins (2013) posited that for a person to take maximum advantage of their cognitive intelligence, they need emotional intelligence first. Emotional intelligence (EI) was described by Salovey & Mayers (1990) as a social intelligence subset involving a person's ability to monitor one's or others' emotions and feelings, discriminate among them and be able to use these information to guide one's thinking and actions. It is an essential characteristic that may have an effect on the quality of student's learning ability.