Social intelligence, empathy, and self-esteem among undergraduate nursing students: a correlational study

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relationship between social intelligence (SI), empathy, and self-esteem among nursing students. Methods A quantitative cross-sectional design was utilized to conduct this study. Data were collected from 465 students from 4 different nursing colleges between April and November 2021. The Tromso Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS), Jefferson Empathy Scale, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were used to collect data. A complete enumerative technique was used to select the students at the time of data collection. Results Most of the student nurses scored lower in SI. However, they had an acceptable level of empathy and a high level of self-esteem. A correlation was found between self-esteem and gender, as well as empathy and year of study. Conclusions Our findings suggest that nursing students would benefit from improved SI skills. More work is needed to determine how best to incorporate these concepts into nursing curricula and create training programs for nursing students.