Emotional Intelligence and Good Medical Practice: Is There a Relationship?

Abstract

Emotional intelligence (EI) is defined as the ability to perceive and manage the emotions of oneself and others. Despite being one of the most highly used psychological terms in popular nomenclature, its understanding in the context of clinicians remains poor. There is a dearth of literature on this topic, and this submission examines the relationship between a clinicians' EI and the key domains of "Good Medical Practice" guidelines from the General Medical Council, United Kingdom. It aims to review and critically analyse the existing literature on EI and Good Medical Practice while attempting to establish a relationship between the two. This submission thus examines the relationship between emotional intelligence and a clinician's on-the-job performance. The findings demonstrate how emotional intelligence can aid the clinician in all aspects of their working life in the context of practising in line with General Medical Council (GMC) guidance. The authors also recommend exploring the possibility of inclusion of EI within a modern medical curriculum, as it may lead to improved practice in clinicians.

Keywords: emotional intelligence; good medical practice; medical education; medical training; psychology; surgical training.

Figure 1. Flow diagram representing the process of inclusion/exclusion

Figure 2. Total number of articles reviewed for each key domain