Examining change in emotional-social intelligence, caring, and leadership in health professions students.

Purpose: To describe and compare the development of emotional-social intelligence (ESI), caring, and leadership of nursing and physical therapy students from the beginning of their professional education until after their first clinical experiences.

Methods: At the beginning of their first professional year, 73 nursing students and 60 physical therapy students completed three self-report questionnaires: the BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory Short (EQ-i:S) for ESI, the Caring Ability Inventory, and the Self-Assessment Leadership Instrument (SALI). For each instrument, higher scores represent higher levels of ESI, caring, or leadership, respectively. The students completed the questionnaires again after finishing their first clinical experiences.

Results: A two-way ANOVA with repeated measures (group vs time) revealed a significant interaction for the total score of the EQ-i:S. At both time periods, scores on the SALI were lower for the nursing students compared to the physical therapy students. There were no other significant time or group effects.

Conclusion: Nursing and physical therapy students had little change in ESI, leadership, and caring between the start of their academic programs and completion of their first clinical affiliations.