. Magna Manjareeka; . Srijan Yadav
Volume 10, Issue 8 , August 2020, , Pages 1-6
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Today’s Bachelor in Medicine, Bachelor in Surgery (MBBS) students will becomeIndian Medical Graduates in future. Emotional intelligence (EI) is an essential component ...
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BACKGROUND: Today’s Bachelor in Medicine, Bachelor in Surgery (MBBS) students will becomeIndian Medical Graduates in future. Emotional intelligence (EI) is an essential component in themaking of an Indian Medical Graduate. There is increasing stress during medical training. The studywas conducted to compare the association of EI score and perceived stress scale (PSS) amongaverage and excellent undergraduate medical students. The secondary objective was to find thepredictors of excellent academic performance.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This descriptive cross‑sectional study was conducted after institutionalethics committee approval. All 522 consented students studying in 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 9th semesters filledup established pre‑validated questionnaires ; Schutteself report EI test and Cohen’s perceived stressscale. Sociodemographic details of the respondents were collected. Average attendance and marksof previous semester examinations of all included students were collected from academic cell of theinstitution. All students were grouped into three groups: average, good, and excellent performersfrom the marks collected. Comparison of EI scores and PSS scores was done between students inexcellent and average groups using unpaired t‑test.RESULTS: Of the 94.9% of respondents, 78.2% of the students were included in the study. The meanEI and PSS scores were 123 ± 14.5 and 22.8 ± 13.9, respectively. There was no statistically significantdifference in EI scores between average and excellent performers ([123.8 ± 18.7] vs. [127.7 ± 16];P – 0.089). Perceived stress was lower in excellent performers ([20.9 ± 11.1] vs. [24.8 ± 15.0];P – 0.01). EI was associated with better performance in clinical year students. EI was negativelycorrelated to perceived stress.CONCLUSION. Our study provides predictors of excellent academic performances among Indianmedical undergraduates. This study suggests introduction of extracurricular activities in ongoingundergraduate curricular syllabus. It imparts awareness among students about the importance ofattending classes. This study bestows higher EI and lower perceived stress to better academicperformance.
