Doctoral Project for Molly Taylor: An Emotional Intelligence Educational Intervention to Reduce Burnout in Healthcare Profession Students: A Pilot Study

An Emotional Intelligence Educational Intervention to Reduce Burnout in Healthcare Profession Students: A Pilot Study ABSTRACT Healthcare profession (HCP) students and professionals are disproportionately affected by burnout compared to the general population. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a learnable skillset demonstrated to protect against burnout and enhance wellbeing, life and job satisfaction, and resilience in these populations. However, HCP programs lack education or trainings within the curricula to promote EI skill development. We aim to determine the effect of a brief educational workshop and reflection practice on EI and burnout in HCP students and compare the efficacy of this workshop between clinically-active and non-clinically active HCP students. Our longitudinal quasi-experimental intervention design will assess EI and burnout scores in HCP student’s pre-intervention and post-intervention immediately after and 4- weeks post-intervention. Students who participate will be assigned to two groups, clinically-active or non-clinically active, based on their clinical status. The intervention will include a 3-hr educational workshop and 4-week reflection practice guided by pre-determined prompts. Statistical analyses will include repeated measures ANOVA and independent T-tests. We hypothesize that our intervention will result in EI improvements and burnout score reductions in all students, with a large effect in clinically-active students who are able to apply learned theory directly to patient care scenarios. Word count: 192 (200 limit)