Spiritual and Emotional Intelligence of Nursing Students: Basis for an Enhanced Student Development Program

Abstract

This study aims to determine the level of spiritual and emotional intelligence of nursing students to serve as basis for an enhanced student development program.  Four subscales of spiritual intelligence including critical existential thinking, personal meaning production, transcendental awareness, and conscious state expansion were included in the SISRI-24 Scale used.  To measure emotional intelligence, the tool used encompassed five subscales including self-awareness, managing emotions, motivating oneself, empathy, and social skills.  A descriptive research design was used and data were gathered from 265 Nursing students through survey questionnaires.  These were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and range, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey HSD (Honestly Significant Difference) post-hoc test, Tukey HSD Homogenous Subsets Analysis, and the Pearson correlation coefficient (r).  The results of the study revealed that the students possessed a moderate level of spiritual intelligence across all four subscales and a high level of emotional intelligence across all five areas.  Further, there is a strong, positive correlation between the students’ level of spiritual and emotional intelligence indicating that higher levels of spiritual intelligence are significantly associated with higher levels of emotional intelligence.  The findings of this study suggest that enhancing spiritual intelligence could be a pathway to improving emotional intelligence, which in turn would better equip nursing students for the emotional demands of their profession.  The overall result suggests the strengthening of spiritual care education through teaching-learning activities aimed at fostering spiritual intelligence and the creation of an enhanced student development program ultimately contributing to the overall well-being and effectiveness of future nurses.