DEVELOPING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ACROSS THE NURSING STUDENT JOURNEY: FROM SELF-AWARENESS TO PROFESSIONAL EMOTIONAL PRACTICE

Abstract

Nursing education prepares students for work in which scientific knowledge, technical competence, ethical responsibility, and human relationships are inseparable. Students must assess changing clinical conditions, perform procedures, communicate with patients and families, collaborate across professions, and respond to suffering and uncertainty. These activities are emotionally consequential. A student may experience anxiety before a first procedure, discomfort during intimate care, sadness after a patient deteriorates, frustration when a skill is difficult to master, or shame after corrective feedback. Such responses are not peripheral to learning; they influence attention, interpretation, communication, help-seeking, and the willingness to remain engaged in challenging situations.

Emotional intelligence is relevant because it concerns how people perceive, understand, use, and regulate emotional information in themselves and others. In nursing education, however, it should not be reduced to appearing calm, being agreeable, or demonstrating generalized empathy. A student may look composed while suppressing distress, communicate politely while avoiding an unsafe concern, or become deeply empathic while losing professional boundaries. Competent emotional practice requires a coordinated capacity to recognize emotions, interpret their meaning, regulate their expression, respond to the emotions of others, and select actions consistent with patient needs, clinical evidence, and professional values.