Emotional Intelligence and its Relationship with Stress of Nursing Students in Clinical Setting.

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: Emotional Intelligence is a set of abilities that affects individual’s total capacity in reacting to environment’s needs and stress. As there is few studies about emotional intelligence and its relationship with stress, so this study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between emotional intelligence and nursing students’ stress in clinical setting. Methods: This was a descriptive-correlational study carried out on 350 nursing students who were studying in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences at the time of data collection. Demographic characteristics checklist, Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire for nursing students in clinics, and Nursing Students Stress Inventory in clinics were used for data collection. Then, data were analyzed by SPSS version 17. In descriptive statistics, descriptive indicators (frequency, percent, mean and standard deviation) were used in determining mean score and evaluating data. Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient and Chi-square were applied to compare the relationship between emotional intelligence and stress. Level of significance was considered less than 0.05 in all the statistical tests. Results: The range of students’ age was 22.47±2.83. Mean ± standard deviation of emotional intelligence was 105.73±9.45 and mean ± standard deviation of students’ tension was 47.70±13.08. There was an indirect and significant statistical relationship between emotional intelligence and tension in nursing students (p<0.05).