Emotional Intelligence of House Officers in Nishtar Medical University, Multan

Abstract

Background: Young doctors often face rude behavior, shouting, and exchange of bad words at the workplace, which leads to emotional stress and unhappiness. Mostly, it is related to low emotional intelligence (EI). EI helps to control anger, solve problems, communicate better, resolve conflicts, teamwork and reduce burnout. As EI is teachable and coachable, our research aim was to determine why house officers were having low emotional intelligence, and the objective was to investigate the factors contributing to low emotional intelligence in house officers at their workplace.
Methods: A concurrent mixed-method study was conducted on house officers at Nishtar Medical University, Multan, from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025. The data collection tool was a survey questionnaire, having SSEIT scores, demographics, and one open-ended question for personal opinion. Quantitative analysis was done in SPSS v27 using post-stratification, one-way ANOVA (specialty, age), and an independent t-test (for other variables), with significance p<0.05. Qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis, manual coding, and theme development.
Results: Out of 202 participants, 57.9% had average EI, 24.3% high, and 17.8% low. Subscale means were: MOE 34.24 ± 5.53, MOTE 30.82 ± 6.69, UOE 24.29 ± 3.53, and POE 37.06 ± 5.83. EI increased with age (p=0.010). Males scored higher than females (130.58 vs. 122.13; p<0.001). Notably, high achievers had lower EI than average participants (p<0.001). Thematic analysis revealed five key workplace challenges: burnout, gender bias, family/social pressures, unprofessional seniors, and hostile environment.
Conclusion: House officers demonstrated satisfactory emotional intelligence, which appears to improve with age and experience. Integrating EI training into medical education could be beneficial for boosting resilience.