Do we develop public health leaders?- association between public health competencies and emotional intelligence: a cross-sectional study

• Published in: BMC medical education 2014-04, Vol.14 (1), p.83-83, Article 83
• Main Authors: Czabanowska, Katarzyna, Malho, André, Schröder-Bäck, Peter, Popa, Daniela, Burazeri, Genc
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Adult; Core curriculum; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data Analysis; Educational Objectives; Emotional Intelligence; Emotions; Female; Humans; Individual Characteristics; Intercultural communication; Interpersonal Competence; Knowledge Level; Leaders; Leadership; Leadership Qualities; Leadership Training; Likert scale; Likert Scales; Male; Methods; Netherlands - epidemiology; Professional Competence; Psychological Tests; Psychometrics; Public health; Public Health - manpower; Public Health Administration - manpower; Public health education; Questionnaires; Selection Criteria; Student Evaluation; Students; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teaching Methods; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1472-6920; 1472-6920
• DOI: 10.1186/1472-6920-14-83

Professional development of public health leaders requires a form of instruction which is competency-based to help them develop the abilities to address complex and evolving demands of health care systems. Concurrently, emotional intelligence (EI) is a key to organisational success. Our aim was twofold: i) to assess the relationship between the level of self-assessed public health and EI competencies among Master of European Public Health (MEPH) students and graduates at Maastricht University, and; ii) to determine the relationship between different groups of public health competencies and specific EI skills. A cross-sectional study was conducted including all recent MEPH graduates and students from 2009-2012, out of 67 eligible candidates N = 51 were contacted and N = 33 responded (11 males and 22 females; overall response: 64.7%).Two validated tools were employed: i) public health competencies self-assessment questionnaire, and; ii) Assessing Emotions Scale. Females scored higher than males in all seven domains of the self-assessed key public health competencies (NS) and emotional intelligence competences (P = 0.022). Overall, the mean value of public health competencies was the lowest in students with "staff" preferences and the highest among students with mixed job preferences (P < 0.001). There was evidence of a correlation between the overall public health competencies and the overall emotional intelligence competencies (r = 0.61, P < 0.001). The study shows a positive correlation between public health specific competencies and EI attributes. It can contribute to the improvement of the educational content of PH curricula by rising awareness through self-assessment and supporting the identification of further educational needs related to leadership.