Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Coping Strategies among Baccalaureate Nursing Students:An Evaluative Study

Over the years man's ability to perform has been judged by the intelligence he possesses, but it is evident intelligent quotient accounts only for about twenty percent of our success. The major attributes called Emotional Intelligence is critical to personal and professional success. Salovey and Mayer (1990) first coined the term emotional intelligence (EI), referring emotional intelligence as an ability to recognise the meaning of emotions and their relationship and to reason out and solve problems on the basis of the understanding. They farther stated that EI develops with age and emotional skills can be learned. Nursing as a profession demands greater deal of understanding as we work with humans .Navigating through all emotions takes tact and cleverness especially if they hope to succeed in life. This is where emotional intelligence becomes important and integral part of their professional and personal life. This study aimed at assessing the EI of nursing students as well as the coping strategies used by them by using emotional intelligence inventory (EI) by Immanuel Thomas and coping strategies scale respectively at Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal. Out of 74 participants, those having low and very low emotional intelligence(27) were subjected to emotional intelligence enhancement programme covering different facets of EQ of 10 hours divided into 5 days and post test was earned out after one month of intervention. The study group had significantly better improvement on overall emotional intelligence (p<0.001), personal efficacy (p<0.001),interpersonal efficacy(p<0.001), intrapersonal efficacy (p<0.001) and coping strategies(p<0.001). The Pearson correlation co-efficient also showed a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and coping strategies(r=0.504, p<0.001). It was also evident that students adopted better coping strategies like positive reappraisal and seeking social support post EI enhancement programme.