Background: Physicians, residents, and medical students consistently report higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, and suicide compared to the general population. Emotional intelligence is a trait one possesses and has been described in literature as having the potential to protect this population from the many negative effects of the medical field. It has also been studied in business literature demonstrating multiple performance benefits. The purpose of this review is to investigate all possible effects of emotional intelligence for physicians, residents, and medical students.
Methods: A systematic review was conducted of studies investigating the effects of emotional intelligence on physicians, residents, or medical students between 2013 – 2023. Studies investigating effects of empathy levels on the study population were also included due to the proven correlations between emotional intelligence and empathy. Included studies must have used a validated measure or reported a reliable method of measuring emotional intelligence or empathy. Methodological index for nonrandomized studies was used to assess bias in studies.
Results: Forty articles were included for review. Burnout was the most studied outcome with 20 articles reporting significant protective effects of emotional intelligence (P<.05). Other significant protective effects of emotional intelligence included decreased levels of anxiety, stress, depression, and emotional exhaustion. Emotional intelligence demonstrated beneficial effects in patient care including patient satisfaction, perceived communication ratings, patient information recall, and per patient yearly visits (P<.05). Emotional intelligence also had a beneficial effect on many aspects of personal performance (P<.05).
Conclusion: Emotional intelligence has many beneficial effects for physicians and physician trainees. Those in this population can benefit from improved levels. Emotional intelligence can be improved through training which can be implemented at all levels of training. With these benefits, emotional intelligence can serve as part of a holistic screening process to help predict successful physicians, residents, and medical students.