2019 HSC Section 2 - Practice Management

McKinley & Phitayakorn

Table 1 Sample items from the Trait Emotional Questionnaire, a psychometrically validated EI tool

Disagree Completely

Agree Completely

1 I am usually able to control other people

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2 Generally, I do not take notice of other people’s emotions 3 When I receive wonderful news, I find it difficult to calm down quickly 4 I tend to see difficulties in every opportunity rather than opportunities in every difficulty 5 On the whole, I have a gloomy perspective on most things 7 Understanding the needs and desires of others is not a problem for me 8 I generally believe that things will work out fine in my life 9 I often find it difficult to recognize what emotion I am feeling 6 I do not have a lot of happy memories

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

10 I am not socially skilled

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

From Petrides KV. Technical manual for the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue). 1st edition. 5th printing ed. London: London Psychometric Laboratory; 2012; with permission.

was a slight negative correlation. There was no correlation between applicant TEIQue score and faculty 360 SF. Furthermore, TEIQue scores did not correlate with faculty evaluation of the applicant’s interview. Despite the lack of correlation between measured EI and traditional admission parameters, there was a modest correlation between EI and rank status, with unranked candidates scoring significantly lower in EI than ranked candidates. Given the mixed findings, the authors concluded that it was too early to include EI as a parameter for selecting general surgery residents. In another study of medical students, Arora and colleagues 32 investigated the rela- tionship between the stress experienced by subjects before, during, and after a sur- gical task and trait EI. They assessed the trait EI of medical students and then measured the heart rate as well as reported stress levels of medical students who completed a task using the Minimally Invasive Surgical Trainer–Virtual Reality, a vali- dated virtual reality simulator. Medical students who had high trait EI reported higher levels of stress and also had higher heart rates during the simulated surgical task, which may suggest that high trait EI may not necessarily always be beneficial. These same students, however, also demonstrate more rapid recovery to before-task stress levels than lower–trait EI peers. Overall, this study demonstrated that simulation can effectively draw out individual differences in responses to simulated scenarios and that there may be an interaction between EI and simulation, which can be exploited or used for educational purposes. One avenue of future investigation is to use collected data on an individual’s trait EI or stress response to tailor future simulated experiences such that the individual develops more effective stress-coping strategies. Weng and colleagues 33 have demonstrated a positive relationship between physi- cian EI and patient satisfaction for attending level surgeons in Taiwan. In a study of 50 surgeons and 549 patients, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between surgeon EI and the presurgical patient-doctor relationship. This research

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