Abstract
Background: Understanding what factors contribute to NCLEX-RN success is critical to nursing programs. Emotional intelligence is one factor that warrants investigation.
Purpose: The purpose of our study was to examine emotional intelligence, measured via the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test 2.0, to 2 standardized measures of nursing student performance: the Kaplan Nursing Assessment Test (NAT) and NCLEX-RN success.
Methods: A descriptive, cohort design with 2 data collections times points (n = 53) evaluated the contribution of emotional intelligence to NAT and to NCLEX-RN success, while controlling for age.
Results: Emotional intelligence global scores were significantly related to both NAT and NCLEX-RN. Understanding emotions branch was a significant predictor of NAT. Perceiving emotions and understanding emotions branches were both significant predictors of NCLEX-RN.
Conclusions: Results suggest that enhancing nursing curriculum to include training in perceiving and understanding emotions may be beneficial in augmenting student success.