Academic Achievement and Emotional Intelligence among Undergraduate Nursing Students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: The concept of emotional intelligence and its effect on critical thinking and educational, professional, and health issues have come into interest. On the other hand, based on studies conducted in this regard, emotional intelligence is found to be positively associated with positive attitudes, better adaptation, improvement in relationship with others and better awareness of positive values. Accordingly, this study was performed to Comparison of academic achievement and emotional intelligence among nursing students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This analytic sectional descriptive study was conducted in year 2009 in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Study population included all nursing students of sixth semester (both day and night students and N=100). The emotional intelligence questionnaire by Bar et al was used to determine the level of emotional intelligence among the students. Students’ academic achievement was derived based on their scores on previous final examinations recoded by nursing faculty’s chancellery of education. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) as well as inferential statistics (ANOVA and t test). Results: The mean of total academic achievement score was 15.6±2.92 the mean of academic achievement in theoretical lessons was 15.2±3.4 the mean score of academic achievement in clinical lessons was 17.39±1.75 and mean score of emotional intelligence was 337±35.73 for these students. The highest score belonged to responsibility factor (25.95±2.84) and the lowest was associated with tension control (19.74±3.44). ANOVA showed that there is a statistically significant difference between mean of emotional intelligence factors and academic achievement means in the theoretical lessons (p=0.02 and f=2.049) as well as the total mean score of academic achievement (p=0.015 and f=2.153). Conclusion: A significant difference was observed between mean score of emotional intelligence and total mean score of academic achievement as well as mean score of academic achievement in theoretical lessons. The majority of studies in this field have approved the relationship between emotional intelligence and professional success. Therefore, recommendations have been proposed for improvement of emotional intelligence, application of findings, and further studies.