Measured emotional intelligence ability and grade point average in nursing students

For most schools of nursing, grade point average is the most important criteria for admission to nursing school and constitutes the main indicator of success throughout the nursing program. In the general research literature, the relationship between traditional measures of academic success, such as grade point average and postgraduation job performance is not well established. In both the general population and among practicing nurses, measured emotional intelligence ability correlates with both performance and other important professional indicators postgraduation. Little research exists comparing traditional measures of intelligence with measured emotional intelligence prior to graduation, and none in the student nurse population.

This exploratory, descriptive, quantitative study was undertaken to explore the relationship between measured emotional intelligence ability and grade point average of first year nursing students.

The study took place at a school of nursing at a university in the south central region of the United States. Participants included 72 undergraduate student nurse volunteers.

Emotional intelligence was measured using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, version 2, an instrument for quantifying emotional intelligence ability. Pre-admission grade point average was reported by the school records department.

Total emotional intelligence (r=.24) scores and one subscore, experiential emotional intelligence(r=.25) correlated significantly (>.05) with grade point average.

This exploratory, descriptive study provided evidence for some relationship between GPA and measured emotional intelligence ability, but also demonstrated lower than average range scores in several emotional intelligence scores. The relationship between pre-graduation measures of success and level of performance postgraduation deserves further exploration. The findings of this study suggest that research on the relationship between traditional and nontraditional measures of academic success, and emotional intelligence correlation with postgraduation performance, is warranted.