• Austyn Snowden, Rosie Stenhouse, Jenny Young, Hannah Carver, Fiona Carver, and Norrie Brown.
• University of the West of Scotland, Ayr Campus, Ayr KA8 0SX, UK. Electronic address: Austyn.snowden@uws.ac.uk.
• Nurse Educ Today. 2015 Jan 1; 35 (1): 152-8.

BackgroundEmotional Intelligence (EI), previous caring experience and mindfulness training may have a positive impact on nurse education. More evidence is needed to support the use of these variables in nurse recruitment and retention.ObjectiveTo explore the relationship between EI, gender, age, programme of study, previous caring experience and mindfulness training.DesignCross sectional element of longitudinal study.Setting And Participants938year one nursing, midwifery and computing students at two Scottish Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) who entered their programme in September 2013.DataParticipants completed a measure of 'trait' EI: Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Short Form (TEIQue-SF); and 'ability' EI: Schutte's et al. (1998) Emotional Intelligence Scale (SEIS). Demographics, previous caring experience and previous training in mindfulness were recorded.MethodsRelationships between variables were tested using non-parametric tests.ResultsEmotional intelligence increased with age on both measures of EI [TEIQ-SF H(5)=15.157 p=0.001; SEIS H(5)=11.388, p=0.044]. Females (n=786) scored higher than males (n=149) on both measures [TEIQ-SF, U=44,931, z=-4.509, p<.001; SEIS, U=44,744, z=-5.563, p<.001]. Nursing students scored higher that computing students [TEIQ-SF H(5)=46,496, p<.001; SEIS H(5)=33.309, p<0.001. There were no statistically significant differences in TEIQ-SF scores between those who had previous mindfulness training (n=50) and those who had not (n=857) [U=22,980, z=0.864, p = 0.388]. However, median SEIS was statistically significantly different according to mindfulness training [U=25,115.5, z=2.05, p=.039]. Neither measure demonstrated statistically significantly differences between those with (n=492) and without (n=479) previous caring experience, [TEIQ-SF, U=112, 102, z=0.938, p=.348; SEIS, U=115,194.5, z=1.863, p=0.063].ConclusionsPrevious caring experience was not associated with higher emotional intelligence. Mindfulness training was associated with higher 'ability' emotional intelligence. Implications for recruitment, retention and further research are explored.Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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