Emotional Intelligence Workshop Framework for Medical Students

We detail an interactive session/workshop for medical students that allows participants to (1) reflect on the importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) for healthcare professionals, (2) identify areas of EQ (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills) they personally want to develop further, and (3) start developing tangible action items/next-steps to work on identified EQ area. We include realistic, thought-provoking questions to guide the discussion based on whether participants seem positively or negatively inclined towards the importance of EQ. We also reflect on how EQ can be used to promote/negate diversity and inclusion, as well as affect student well-being (eg. overcoming imposter syndrome). Our goal with this discussion is to highlight how crucial EQ is for numerous aspects of student life and education; hopefully, this strategy not only increases EQ among students but also encourages student buy-in. Finally, we provide realistic next steps that help students tackle one of the EQ domains and apply them to their life. We include some preliminary lessons learnt from our presentation of the workshop at our institution – held via Zoom.