الفهرس 
AIM OF THE WORKOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Emotional intelligence (EI) can be defined as the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and our relationships. It involves four key domains: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
These domains are vital in all work fields specifically in the health care practices, since the health care providers work at stressful environment and deal with patients at emotionally demanding situations. Therefore, understanding and managing their own and their patient’s emotions, and communicating emotions effectively, would allow them to adapt with the stress, perform professionally, and become more satisfied by their careers, besides these emotional competencies would allow them to gain patients’ sense of secure, trust, compliance and satisfaction. Concerning the role of EI in the academic field, previous researches revealed that EI may be a moderate predictor of students’ academic achievement, it also related to better interpersonal relations, better coping and lower exam anxiety. However, the results and conclusions of the medical and dental educational surveys are inconsistent, especially those studying the relation between EI and academic achievement.
This study aimed to assess the EI levels among dental interns of the year 2014-2015, graduates of the Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, and explore its relation to some demographic variables, as well as, to their academic achievement, as represented in their cumulative total final grades.
After securing the approval of both the Dental Research Ethics Committee at the Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University and the Alexandria Directorate of Health Affairs, a pilot study was conducted on 20 interns and the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were tested, and showed acceptable validity and reliability of all its items, convergent validity of all subscales ranged from (0.45 to 0.76), and of each item in subscale ranged from (0.44 to 0.8), while test retest stability was (0.78, p<0.001), Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.81); hence the questionnaire was acceptable for further use.
A total number of 384 interns, who were attending their internship training in the year 2014-2015, were approached at the Faculty, as well as at the MOH facilities and were invited to participate in this cross-sectional study, after explaining the study objectives and reassuring the confidentiality of information the interns had the right to accept or refuse participation. The questionnaire included socio-demographic and academic data, as well as, the Genos EI self-reported questionnaire, comprising 31-items, rated on a five-point Likert-scale, to explore their typical EI at the workplace, regarding seven EI subscales; namely, Emotional Self-Awareness, Emotional Expression, Emotional Awareness of Others, Emotional Reasoning, Emotional Self-Management, Emotional Management of Others, and Emotional Self-Control. The data were coded, fed and then analyzed using the SPSS version 20.0, as appropriate.
A total number of 267 inters answered the questionnaire, accounting for (87.54%), response rate. The results of this study showed that the majority of dental interns demonstrated ’high’ levels of EI generally, they were best in ‘Emotional Awareness of Others’ and ‘Emotional Management of Others’, the least scores were observed in the ‘Emotional Self-Control’ and ‘Emotional Expression’ subscales of EI. Significant differences were found in the levels of EI in favor of the males than females, single than married, those who chose dentistry as their own desire than those who were encouraged by their parents, those who were satisfied to study dentistry than those who were not and those who wish to be enrolled in a dental subspecialty program than those who do not. The dental interns’ EI predicted their academic performance, the one unit increase in total EI was associated with 4.5 higher grades, moreover the two variables were significantly correlated (r=0.16, p=0.01), besides, the ‘Emotional Self-Management’ subscale accounted for 55% of variance in participant’s total final grades, it was found as the only predictor of participant’s total final grades; each unit increase in participants ESM was associated with 25 higher grades.
Although this study was cross-sectional in nature, it offers important insights into the EI profiles of dental interns; providing the Faculty of Dentistry in Alexandria with preliminary base line data on the levels of EI of its fresh graduates and its relation to their demographic characteristics; it also answers the research question by providing important evidence that EI was a predictor of students’ academic performance, and the two variables were significantly correlated.
The results of the current study suggest raising the awareness of the educational committee, as well as, the dental students regarding the importance of EI in the dental field. Moreover, maintaining the high EI levels of the dental interns over the following years, and employing EI measures in the processes of students’ academic admission and evaluation so as to ensure the graduation of quality dental practitioners, who are able to meet the patients’ needs. The study also encourages the implementation of interventional programs that intend to develop and improve EI competencies of students during the years of studying at the University; this would help the low achievers to upgrade their skills. In addition tailored programs should target the female dental students to improve their EI levels with consideration to the social barriers and cultural norms. EI research is still in its premature stage, and further studies are needed to explore EI across different years of academic education, as well as, across different health professions to know whether dental study enhance these skills or not, as well as, discovering its relation to clinical performance, learning styles, patient satisfaction, IQ, together with other relevant variables, and conducting longitudinal studies to explore causality.