Effect of Emotional Intelligence Training on the Communication Skills of Final-year Nursing Students

Aim: Effective communication has a key role in nursing profession. Furthermore, controlling emotions as a part of communication skills has an important role in initiating and maintaining healthy social communications. The meaning of emotional intelligence is also effected considerably by the importance of this aspect of social communications. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of emotional intelligence training on the communication skills of final-year nursing students of Islamic Azad University, Isfahan branch (Khorasgan) in 2014. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was done with semester 7 and 8 undergraduate (nursing) 77 students. Data were collected by Bar-On Emotional Intelligence Test and Queen-Dom Communication Skills Test. Initially, the questionnaires were completed by the students; then the emotional intelligence workshop was held in 6 sessions’ each took 45 minutes. After a month, again both questionnaires were completed by the students. Analysis of results was performed by descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, middle and standard deviation) and analytic statistics (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Wilcoxon and Spearman correlation coefficient) in the SPSS software (version 19). Findings: Difference of communication skills’ scores before and after the intervention had a significant level (p=0.001), and the scores increased after the intervention significantly. Conclusion: Emotional intelligence training has a positive impact on communication skills of nursing students. So holding emotional intelligence workshops in one of the university alternatively annually for nursing students is recommended.