Developing critical thinking disposition and emotional intelligence of nursing students: a longitudinal research

Background: Emotional Intelligence is considered as an important characteristic of nurses that can affect the quality of their work including clinical decision-making, critical thinking, evidence and knowledge use in practice. Objectives: The study is aimed to determine nursing students' critical thinking disposition and emotional intelligence in an academic year. Design: A longitudinal design. Setting and participants: The focus population of this longitudinal study consists of 197 freshman students studying at a faculty of nursing. Method: Asymmetrical cluster sampling method was used to determine sample group and all the students registered in the first year were included in scope of the study. Information Form, California Critical Thinking Disposition Scale and Emotional Intelligence Assessment Scale were used for data collection. SPSS version 11.5 was used for data analysis. Results: Nursing students have a low level of critical thinking disposition and intermediate level of emotional intelligence both at the beginning and end of academic year. There was no statistically significant difference in both skills at the beginning and end of year. There was a statistically significant difference between students' critical thinking disposition and emotional intelligence at the beginning of academic year. There was a positive correlation at a medium level between students' critical thinking disposition and emotional intelligence at the beginning and end of academic year. Conlusions: In light of these results, it is that suggested the study should be prolonged as longitudinal because development of both skills require a long time. The current study holds importance that it sheds light on other relevant studies and nursing education programs. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.