Emotional intelligence among nursing students in the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: To analyze emotional intelligence among nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic and describe emotional attention, clarity and repair scores in managing emotions. Methods: This is a quantitative, observational cross-sectional study, comprising 121 nursing students at the Universidade Federal do Vale do Sao Francisco. Data collection was performed using a self-administered form containing the Informed Consent Form, a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24, validated for use in Portuguese. Data were submitted to statistical treatment using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 20.0. Results: There were no significant differences between gender, sociodemographic data, and graduation period with Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 scores. However, fourth and eighth semester students had significantly lower averages on this scale (p=0.015). Conclusion: The need to address emotional intelligence throughout the nursing graduation was evidenced, in addition to reinforcing the psychological support of students, based on services already provided by the university.