Can enriching emotional intelligence improve medical students’ proactivity and adaptability during OB/GYN clerkships?

Abstract

ObjectivesThe purpose of this pilot study was to examine our hypothesis that enriching workplace emotional intelligence through resident coaches could improve third-year medical students’ adaptability and proactivity on the Obstetrics and Gynecology clerkship.MethodsAn observational pilot study was conducted in a teaching hospital. Fourteen 3rd year medical students from two cohorts of clerkships were randomly divided into two groups, and equally assigned to trained resident coaches and untrained resident coaches. Data was collected through onsite naturalistic observation of students’ adaptability and proactivity in clinical settings using a checklist with a 4-point Likert scale (1=poor to 4=excellent). Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to compare the differences between these two groups.ResultsA total of 280 data points were collected through onsite observations conducted by investigators. All (n=14) students’ adaptability and proactivity performance significantly improved from an average of 3.04 to 3.45 (p=0.014) over 6-week clerkship. Overall, students with trained resident coaches adapted significantly faster and were more proactive in the obstetrics and gynecology clinical setting than the students with untrained coaches (3.31 vs. 3.24, p=0.019). Conclusions Findings from our pilot study supported our hypothesis that enriching workplace emotional intelligence knowledge through resident coaches was able to help medical students adapt into obstetrics and gynecology clinical settings faster and become more proactive in learning. Clerkship programs can incorporate the concept of a resident coach in their curriculum to help bridge medical students into clinical settings and to help them engage in self-directed learning throughout the rotation.

What do we know about coaching in medical education? A literature review

“…Two studies focused on increasing emotional intelligence (EI) in residents and students. Guseh et al cited the correlations between EI and professionalism, academic success and interpersonal skills as a driver for their study. They found that medical students exhibited improved adaptability and proactivity after 6 weeks of coaching.…”

Emotional intelligence and medicine

“…1 Emotional intelligence-based education may also contribute to the teaching of professionalism and communication skills. 2,3 It is perhaps unfortunate that, historically, such great emphasis has been placed on IQ and technical ability, while scant attention has been paid to emotional intelligence. As there is now good evidence that individuals are not born with the latter, but that it can be acquired, now is perhaps the time for educators, as well as clinicians themselves, to modify preand postgraduate curricula and training accordingly.…”

Successful completion of clinical electives – Identification of significant factors of influence on self-organized learning during clinical electives with student focus groups

“…Residents were identified more strongly as key contacts by the elective students in our study rather than consultants. It was mentioned that residents untrained in the guidance of elective students often step in as supervisors [ 28 ], which has a negative impact on the interaction of students and supervisors and thus on the students’ SOL; also, trainings of residents in emotional intelligence are helpful in encouraging self-initiative and thus SOL of elective students [ 29 ]. Likewise, the mentoring by physicians desired by students during clinical electives is beneficial for SOL and does not seem to pose an additional burden on the residents [ 30 ].…”