Introduction: The term emotional intelligence applies to the ability to recognize one's own and others' emotions, express, accept and regulate emotions, distinguish between emotions and use them in thinking and behaviour. There is no uniform definition for emotional intelligence in literature. Most often it is defined as an ability, which we measure with tests, or as a personality trait, which is measured with self-assessment. Physiotherapists with high levels of emotional intelligence tend to establish high quality relationships with their patients, work better in teams, and are more empathetic and caring, which improves the quality of their work. Purpose: The aim of this thesis was to review the literature and investigate, if the emotional intelligence of students of physiotherapy changes during their study and if their emotional intelligence is associated with their work performance. Methods: The search for the literature took place in two databases, PubMed and Google Scholar, with a selection of keywords. Studies in English language, meeting the inclusion criteria, were included in the literature review. Results: The literature review included eight studies, which were published between 2010 and 2020. Seven studies followed in the students’ emotional intelligence during their study. Four studies found an increase in emotional intelligence with study duration, and in two, this change was statistically significant. In one study, there was a statistically significant decline in one of the components of emotional intelligence, namely assertiveness. In three studies, no major changes in emotional intelligence were detected. Three studies focused on associations between the emotional intelligence of physiotherapy students and their work performance. All three revealed a statistically significant correlation between emotional intelligence and measures of learning success or work performance, and the size of these correlations was estimated as low in one study and moderate in two studies. Discussion and conclusion: Based on the results, we can conclude that the emotional intelligence changes during the university study of physiotherapy, and these changes are more often more positive than negative. Work performance is related to emotional intelligence of students, but the associations are too weak to enable reliable prediction of physiotherapy students’ work performance based on their emotional intelligence.
|