Emotional Intelligence Predictor of empathy in medical students

Objective: To explore of predictive relationship of trait emotional intelligence and empathy and explore gender differences in trait emotional intelligence and empathy in medical students. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the CMH, Lahore Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan from April 2015 to October 2015. Participants were medical students from 1st to final years of MBBS and were selected by simple random sampling technique after obtaining informed consent. The sample consisted of 300 students (150 males & 150 females) comprising of 60 students (30 males & 30 females) from each year of MBBS. Two scales were administered, including adapted and translated Urdu version by Shahzad (2014) of Trait Emotional Intelligence Short Form (TEIQue-SF; Petrides, & Furnham, 2006), and locally developed reliable and valid scale of empathy in Urdu, Emotional Empathy Scale (EES; Ashraf, 2004). Results: There was significant predictive relationship between emotional intelligence and empathy by using the regression analysis (R-2 =.529, F=334.4, p<.000). Emotional intelligence in females was significant than males (t (298) =.927, p<.05) but contrary to this findings, no gender difference was found on the variable of empathy (t(298) =1.368, p>.05). Conclusion: Empathy is an important element of healthcare profession and is a key feature of emotional intelligence. Current medical education in Pakistan should look for ways to incorporate emotional intelligence in curriculum and educate health professionals to implement empathy effectively. It will help in achieving the patient satisfaction and better therapeutic results in medical institutions.