Edinburgh Napier University

  Background
Emotional intelligence in nursing is of global interest. International studies identify that emotional intelligence influences nurses' work and relationships with patients. It is associated with compassion and care. Nursing students scored higher on measures of emotional intelligence compared to students of other study programmes. The level of emotional intelligence increases with age and tends to be higher in women.

Objectives
This study aims to measure the differences in emotional intelligence between nursing students with previous caring experience and those without; to examine the effects of gender on emotional intelligence scores; and to test whether nursing students score higher than engineering colleagues on emotional intelligence measures.

Design
A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used.

Settings and Participants
The study included 113 nursing and 104 engineering students at the beginning of their first year of study at a university in Slovenia.

Data
Emotional intelligence was measured using the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) and Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT).

Methods
Shapiro-Wilk's test of normality was used to test the sample distribution, while the differences in mean values were tested using Student t-test of independent samples.

Results
Emotional intelligence was higher in nursing students (n = 113) than engineering students (n = 104) in both measures [TEIQue t = 3.972; p