Emotional intelligence and the relationship to resident performance: a multi-institutional study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To test the hypothesis that emotional intelligence, as measured by a BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), the 125-item version personal inventory (EQ-i:125), correlates with resident performance.

DESIGN

Survey (personal inventory) instrument.

SETTING

Five U.S. academic anesthesiology residency programs.

PARTICIPANTS

Postgraduate year (PGY) 2, 3, and 4 residents enrolled in university-based anesthesiology residency programs.

MEASUREMENTS

Residents confidentially completed the BarOn EQ-i:125 personal inventory. The deidentified resident evaluations were sent to the principal investigator of a separate data collection study for data analysis. Data collected from the inventory were correlated with daily evaluations of the residents by residency program faculty. Results of the individual BarOn EQ-i:125 and daily faculty evaluations of the residents were compiled and analyzed.

MAIN RESULTS

Univariate correlation analysis and multivariate canonical analysis showed that some aspects of the BarOn EQ-i:125 were significantly correlated with, and likely to be predictors of, resident performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Emotional intelligence, as measured by the BarOn EQ-i personal inventory, has considerable promise as an independent indicator of performance as an anesthesiology resident.