The relationship between emotional intelligence, previous caring experience and mindfulness in student nurses and midwives: a cross sectional analysis

BACKGROUND: Emotional Intelligence (EI), previous caring experience and mindfulness training may have a positive impact on nurse education. More evidence is needed to support the use of these variables in nurse recruitment and retention. OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between EI, gender, age, programme of study, previous caring experience and mindfulness training. DESIGN: Cross sectional element of longitudinal study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 938year one nursing, midwifery and computing students at two Scottish Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) who entered their programme in September 2013. DATA: Participants completed a measure of 'trait' EI: Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Short Form (TEIQue-SF); and 'ability' EI: Schutte's et al. (1998) Emotional Intelligence Scale (SEIS). Demographics, previous caring experience and previous training in mindfulness were recorded. METHODS: Relationships between variables were tested using non-parametric tests. RESULTS: Emotional intelligence increased with age on both measures of EI [TEIQ-SF H(5)=15.157 p=0.001; SEIS H(5)=11.388, p=0.044]. Females (n=786) scored higher than males (n=149) on both measures [TEIQ-SF, U=44,931, z=-4.509, p<.001; SEIS, U=44,744, z=-5.563, p<.001]. Nursing students scored higher that computing students [TEIQ-SF H(5)=46,496, p<.001; SEIS H(5)=33.309, p<0.001. There were no statistically significant differences in TEIQ-SF scores between those who had previous mindfulness training (n=50) and those who had not (n=857) [U=22,980, z=0.864, p = 0.388]. However, median SEIS was statistically significantly different according to mindfulness training [U=25,115.5, z=2.05, p=.039]. Neither measure demonstrated statistically significantly differences between those with (n=492) and without (n=479) previous caring experience, [TEIQ-SF, U=112, 102, z=0.938, p=.348; SEIS, U=115,194.5, z=1.863, p=0.063]. CONCLUSIONS: Previous caring experience was not associated with higher emotional intelligence. Mindfulness training was associated with higher 'ability' emotional intelligence. Implications for recruitment, retention and further research are explored.