Emotional intelligence in palliative medical education

Abstract

The death of a patient is one of the most stressful situations a healthcare professional can face for the first time at work or during training. Palliative and end of life care education aims to impart appropriate awareness and understanding of key issues arising at the end of life, but also to develop learners' interpersonal skills in leadership, communication and management of their own emotional load. There is a pressing need to be explicit around death, dying and care at the end of life and to equip clinical staff with the ability to manage the emotions that are experienced by their patients, their teams and themselves. Emotional intelligence is considered as a framework for medical educators to use in this setting with presentation of a simulated patient vignette to contextualise this.

Keywords: Clinical leadership; Development; Emotional intelligence; Medical leadership; Trainees.