EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AMONG UNDERGRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES OF MORANG DISTRICT , NEPAL

1* 2 2 3 4 Uma Pradhan , Namu Koirala , Menuka Shrestha , Dharani Dhar Baral , Surya B. Parajuli Received : 21 April, 2021 Accepted : 12 December, 2021 Published : 21 February, 2022 Pradhan U et al 1590 ISSN: 2542-2758 (Print) 2542-2804 (Online) Birat Journal of Health Sciences Vol.6/No.3/Issue 16/Sep.-Dec., 2021 Original Research Ar cle


Introduc on
Emo onal Intelligence (EI) is the ability to recognize one's own and other's emo ons and capacity to u lize the emo onal informa on to adjust to the environment. Nurse with high EI is found to have a be er interpersonal rela onship, higher job sa sfac on, be er leadership abili es, and be er academic achievement. There is a gap in informa on regarding EI in nursing students of Morang district.

Objec ve
The objec ve of the study was to find out the emo onal intelligence and its associa on with selected sociodemographic variables among undergraduate nursing students of selected colleges of Morang district, Nepal.

Methodology
This was a cross-sec onal study carried out from June 2020 to November 2020 among 423 undergraduate nursing students from three colleges of Morang district. Ethical clearance was obtained from Purbanchal University School of Health Sciences-Ins tu onal Review Commi ee (PUSHS-IRC) and informed consent were taken from study par cipants. A standard tool, "The Schu e Self Report Emo onal Intelligence Test (SSEIT)" was used. Data was collected through a google form. Univariate and bivariate analysis was performed. P-value <0.05 at 95% confidence interval was considered sta s cally significant for bivariate analysis.

Result
Majority (75.4%) of nursing students had a high level of EI score and 24.6% of the students had a moderate level of EI score. There was no sta s cally significant associa on of total EI score with any of the selected demographic variables. Further, the selected domains such as percep on of emo on with an academic year of study (p=0.02), occupa on of the mother (p=0.017), management of other's emo ons with a year of the study (p=0.018), and u liza on of emo on with the type of schooling (p=0.003) were sta s cally significant.

Conclusion
Emo onal intelligence was high and does not vary with different sociodemographic characteris cs among nursing students.

INTRODUCTION
The nursing profession is a noble profession, where nurses face various emo onal turmoil. Managing own emo on and interpre ng other's emo on is the most essen al prerequisite in this profession. This requires not only cri cal thinking but also needs integrated emo onal intelligence during nursing prac ce. According to Peter Salovey and John Mayer, "Emo onal Intelligence involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emo ons, to discriminate among them and to use this informa on to 1 guide one's thinking and ac ons". Emo onal Intelligence (EI)is also considered as an important factor contribu ng to 2 academic success. An emo onally intelligent nurse can 3 work in harmony with his/her thoughts and feelings. Studies have shown that EI allows nurses to develop therapeu c rela onships to meet pa ents' and their family's need and work-related conflict-handling styles to [4][5][6][7] be er manage stress. Research study shows that nurses' EI 8 has a direct impact on the hospital services quality. In the nursing profession, EI has been associated with good job performance with reten on of nurses and posi ve pa ent 9 10 outcomes, successful managerial styles, and effec ve 11 teamwork. Very li le research related to EI has been conducted in Nepal. Iden fica on of EI skills among nursing students will help in the effec ve transi on from the 12 academic se ng to a professional se ng. Assessing the EI among nursing students will help to iden fy the need for the training program and will be a reference to incorporate content of EI in the nursing curriculum. This study will also help to sensi ze the par cipants and authori es to focus on its importance. The present study aims to find out the emo onal and its associa on with selected demographic variables among undergraduate nursing students of selected colleges of Morang district, Nepal.

METHODOLOGY
The cross-sec onal study was undertaken from June 2020 to November 2020 among 423 nursing students enrolled in the BSc Nursing (

RESULTS
The findings show that more than half (59.3%) of the students were of age group 21-25 years. Sixty-one percent of the students were from the BSc Nursing program and 39% of students were from the PBNS (Post-Basic Bachelor of Nursing Science) program. Among them, 77.1% belonged to the single-family, 84.6% were unmarried, 87% did their schooling from a private school. Most of the student's parents (38.8% mother, 33.6% father) had secondary level educa on. The majority (77.3%) of the student's mother was homemakers, whereas the majority (36.9%) of the student's father was a businessman  Figure 1 depicts that 26.70% of the students were from BSc Nursing first year Among PBNS students, 39.40% of the students were from the third year.     Table 4 shows that there was no significant associa on between the total score of EI with selected demographic variables like age, program, year of the study, type of family, marital status, schooling, parent's educa on, parent's occupa on.  Table 5 depict that the Present study showed that there was a significant associa on of EI domain: percep on of emo on with an academic year of the study (p=0.020) and occupa on of the mother (p=0.017). The study also revealed that management of other's emo ons was significantly associated with the year of the study (p=0.018) and u liza on of the emo on was associated with the type of schooling (p=0.003).

DISCUSSION
The present study findings show that 75.4% of nursing students had a total high level of Emo onal Intelligence score. The study was similar to the findings of a study 14 conducted among Saudi nursing students as none of the nursing students had a low level of emo onal intelligence. 15 Other studies done in Nigeria by Omoronyia FRet al was also consistent with the findings of the present study. Intermediate level of EI was found in the majority of the 16 samples in a study done by Sinha Bet al in Nepal, HassaliM 17  emo ons, and U liza on of emo ons respec vely. The finding of the study is in line with the study conducted by 21 Ravikumar R et al among post-graduate medical students in New Delhi, India. The present study shows that there was no significant associa on (p > 0.05) between the EI score with the selected demographic variables which was similar to the findings of a study among Turkish clinical nurses conducted by Kahraman 22 N et al. 16 A study done in Nepal by Sinha B et al is also consistent with the findings in which no significant associa on was found with age, type of family, parent's educa onal status, and program. Another study conducted in Government college of Eastern Nepal is consistent with 23 the findings of present study. A similar finding was present 18 in the longitudinal study done by Kaya et al in Turkey and Mahmoud where no significant 19 HM et al in Egypt differences in EI score with the academic year/ semester. 20 In contrary to the present finding, a study done by Faye et al 24 and Azimi S et al in India found that EI increases among married students. The differences in findings may be because both males and females are included in the later studies.
The present study showed that there was a significant associa on of EI domain: percep on of emo on with an academic year of the study and occupa on of the mother. The study also revealed that management of other's emo ons was significantly associated with the year of the study and u liza on of the emo on was associated with the type of schooling. Findings were similar to the study done by postgraduate medical students in New Delhi, where students who studied in a government school was a more emo onally intelligent and academic year has significant differences in sub-dimensions of EI The 21 (p=0.018). differences in EI domains in the academic year might be because students in other academic years might get emo onal maturity because of more exposure to clinical and community se ng in comparison to first-year students.

CONCLUSION
Emo onal intelligence was high and does not vary with different socio demographic characteris cs among nursing students.

RECOMMENDATION
We recommend considera on of all socio demographic characteris cs for good emo onal intelligence of nursing students. We can suggest a phenomenological study for a depth understanding of emo onal intelligence.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
We were not able to confirm ruling out social desirability bias among study par cipants.