The Concept of Emotional Intelligence - A Neglected Grey Area in Medical Curriculum

motional intelligence (EI) is the mixture of intellect and emotions. A highly emotional intelligent person showcases the ability to control, understand and being in other’s shoes during the time of difficulties. The EI concept is extremely relevant in health care settings. The concept takes in the art of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. These concepts in one way or the other help in rearing, mentoring, and reaching the heights of professionalism among medical students. The health care workers particularly doctors needed to be emotionally intelligent and should have maximum of it for effective outcomes and patient satisfaction. The current situation mandates the medical curriculum to have more of emotionally intelligent medical professionals than those with high intelligence quotient. The recent rise of dispute in health care field may be due to the reduction in emotional intelligence which triggers unhealthy recognition of emotions towards patients and bystanders. The need for the current digital and restricted mindset generation is to impart more of values and thus control and regulate one’s own emotions. The study showcases various components, effects, and importance of emotional intelligence and also reviews few studies done on the topic with a special note on its importance in the current situation of Covid pandemic.

Download Full-text

Culture as a Multidimensional Construct

Sociocultural Issues in Psychiatry ◽

10.1093/med/9780190849986.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 13-36

Author(s):

Anne Emmerich ◽

Leslie Tarver

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Health Care Workers ◽

Life Experience ◽

Cultural Influences ◽

Clinical Work ◽

Self Awareness ◽

Clinical Encounters ◽

Implicit Biases ◽

Care Workers

Despite years of training about how to care for others, many health care providers know little about themselves. This is nowhere more relevant than when caring for patients who come from cultures other than our own because in these clinical encounters, we may not recognize our own implicit biases. Our cultural identity as health care workers is multifaceted, including attitudes shaped by our life experience and those shaped by the culture of our health care system. This chapter discusses the concepts of culture and cultural self-awareness and introduces strategies that health care workers can use to understand their own cultural influences and consider how these may be impacting their clinical work. We present a case example that exemplifies the principles outlined in the chapter.

Download Full-text

Health-Care Professionals Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Emotional Intelligence May Enhance Work Performance Traversing the Mediating Role of Work Engagement

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm10184077 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (18) ◽

pp. 4077

Author(s):

Martin Sanchez-Gomez ◽

Max Sadovyy ◽

Edgar Breso

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Emotional Intelligence ◽

Work Engagement ◽

Health Care Workers ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Work Performance ◽

Mediating Effect ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Care Workers

Upon the eruption of COVID-19, frontline health-care workers confronted substantial workload and stress along with braving additional difficulties when performing at work. The main aim of this research was to assess the mediating role of work engagement in the direct impact of emotional intelligence on health-care professionals’ work performance. A cross-sectional study was conducted in several Spanish hospitals during the second half of 2020. A total of 1549 health-care workers (62.1% women; mean age 36.51 years) filled the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire. Our findings demonstrated that work engagement plays a mediating effect between emotional intelligence and work performance, even when accounting for sociodemographic variables. Indeed, among the three constructs of engagement, vigor dimension (a1b1 = 0.09; CI: 0.06; 0.12; p < 0.01) emerges over dedication (a2b2 = 0.083; CI = 0.05, 0.1; p < 0.01) and absorption (a3b3 = 0.047; CI = 0.02, 0.07; p < 0.01) as the most decisive one. Herewith, it is apparent that professionals with a higher self-perception of emotional intelligence report stronger levels of engagement, thereby leading to greater performance overall. The present work evinces the necessity for proactively developing the emotional competencies of the health-care workforce, especially in high-emotional demand contexts.

Download Full-text