INVESTIGATION OF MEDICAL STUDENTS’ EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Because of the prevailing low level of EI among medical students, the necessity of its development has been arisen. It can be achieved by trainings. The concept of creation of trainings should be based on peculiarities of the aim and tasks which they have. In our opinion, the EI trainings should be included in the curriculum in the last years of study. It makes a sense to implement them for medical workers too. The program of EI training may consist of seven modules with 20 academic hours for each one of them. The modules can be held intermittently. It is planned to devote 6 months to realize the entire program. That is, one module per month can take one day, 10 academic hours, twice per week. The training should be held in the group run by a psychologist (12 - 15 participants).


SUMMARY
The problem of emotional intelligence raises a big interest in the context of training of medical workers, because professional work of doctors is associated with an impact of stressful factors. The ability to keep control over the situation allows to avoid a devastating psychogenic effect on the doctor's personality and indicates their professionalism. The investigation with the aim of assessment of emotional intelligence has been held among medical students of the second year of study of O.O. Bogomolets National Medical University. There were 343 participants in this experiment. We tend to consider the emotional intelligence more as personality traits, not as abilities and because of this our survey was based on Hall's method.
On the base of received data, it was established that 5 students have the high level of emotional intelligence only. That is 1,5% of the total participants' number. The group with mean EI counted 127 students, which is 37,02% of the total amount. The group with low EI turned out to be the most numerical: 211 students and 61,51 % of the total amount. The received data suggest that the mean scores in the group with mean level of EI are generally higher than in the group with low level of EI. The level of «emotional awareness» is 1,62 times higher, «management of one's own emotions» -2,93 times, «self-motivation» -2,02 times, «empathy» -2,01 times, and «discrimination of other people's emotions» -2,36 times. Therefore, the biggest difference is observed in the results of «management of one's own emotions» -reducing almost by 3 times in the group with low EI.

Problem definition and its relationship with important scientific and practical tasks
Nowadays the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) is considered not only as a personal characteristic, which allows one to be successful in one's own activity, but as the necessary part of professionalism in areas where interactions with people is the main component of a job. Emotional intelligence of people may be low, mean or high.
Clear awareness that problems, stressful, emotionally negative and difficult situations might happen in life, and the acknowledgement and sensation of one's own abilities to overcome them are features of high emotional intelligence. In this case, emotions from the field of affects transfer to the level of regulatory functions. It allows an individual not to accumulate negative subconscious experience and react instinctively, but to convert negative emotions in a constructive way. Therefore, as soon as the concept about EI was formed, it was suggested to develop and train it.
With the increase of the data about EI, two concepts were formed around it. Some scien-tists considered EI as abilities: the ability to perceive, differentiate and understand one's own and other people's emotions, to control emotions for providing one's own development (Salovey, Backett & Mayer, 2004). Others, as personal traits: the sum of non-cognitive abilities, competencies and skills, which have a big impact on the ability to cope with challenges and pressure of the environment (Petrides & Furnham, 2003). The difference between these concepts was based on different approaches and methods of EI study and, in both cases, the data had not correlated with each other (Brannick et al., 2009). In order to eliminate these contradictions, it was suggested considering the concept of EI comprehensively, as a hierarchical structure where the abilities and traits are only different levels of the whole structure (Andreeva, 2009;Knyazev, Mitrofanov & Bocharov, 2013).
An interesting fact was established on the base of electrophysiological study. The phenomenon of emotional intelligence has neurophysiological base and allows scientists to uncover some mechanisms of perception and processing of emotional information. The existence of mechanism which amplifies perception of positive emotions and reduces perception of negative emotions was discovered for people with high level of EI (Knyazev, Mitrofanov & Bocharov, 2013).
Given the above, the problem of emotional intelligence arouses interest in the sense of training of medical workers. The work of physicians is strongly influenced by stressful factors.
Therefore, sensible management of emotions allows physicians to avoid a devastating psychogenic effect on the doctors' personalities and represents their professionalism.

Analysis of recent researches and publications
In one of the reviews, different ways of training of each EI component were suggested, as well as the problems that prevent trainings from wide introduction into the curriculum were emphasized (Uchino et. al., 2015). First of all, there is a problem of the lack of confidence in the validity of the very idea of EI, because only about 25 years have gone since the moment of introduction of this term and concept. Sources of information popularize the idea of EI, primarily, as a way to succeed in business. Still, it remains as a new issue for medicine. Secondly, the lack of funds and time for implementing trainings in the curriculum play their role. Nevertheless, according to the data of one source, only 8 hours of training are enough for receiving results in the next four years (Dugan, Weatherly, Girod, Barber & Tsue, 2014). According to another one, trainings which were realized during 18 hours during one weekend, had a visible effect on the next 9 months (Fortney, Luchterhand, Zakletskaia, Zgierska & Rakel, 2013). In authors' opinion, the lack of well-qualified psychologists is another obstacle on the way of introduction of EI trainings into the curriculum (Uchino et. al., 2015).
Another big review, which also focused attention on the problems of implementation of EI trainings, noticed some main factors which should be taken into account. On the base of analyzed data, it was come to the conclusion that trainings had a greater impact on the improvement of EI among students during the last year of study than the first year. Moreover, it is important to emphasize on the significance of empathy and communication with patients during the whole period of study. As the trainings had generally a more positive impact on women than men, it also should be considered during the development of the very method of training (Cherry, Fletcher, O'Sullivan & Shaw, 2012).
What is more, such a vital moment as practical application of EI trainings was pointed out in that review. Almost all sources reported that trainings stimulate learning and improve knowledge, but there is almost no data about changes in students' behavior. It is not reported how EI trainings can be applied by medical students in clinic, although it must be their main purpose (Cherry, Fletcher, O'Sullivan & Shaw, 2012).
According to the interrelation between EI and IQ or academic achievements, the data are different. It had been found that students with high level of EI of the first and the last year of study were more successful in their academic achievements (Chew, Zain & Hassan, 2013

Methods and techniques
Due to the fact that there are two models of EI, different methods of their evaluation exist.
If EI is considered as abilities, it is assessed by tests. In this case, EI correlates mostly with general intelligence. If EI is considered as personality traits, it is estimated by questionnaires and correlates mostly with personal characteristics. Respectively, the second method allows better to examine individual distinctions in personal sensation of emotional stimuli (Knyazev, Mitrofanov & Bocharov, 2013). We have decided to follow the latter concept and in our research adapted Nicolas Hall's method was used (Fetiskin, Kozlov & Manuilov, 2002). This is a questionnaire, which includes 30 statements of different aspects of perception and reaction to emotional situations, which are scored on a 3-point rating scale ranging from «+» 3 (totally agree) to « ̶ » 3 (completely disagree). The research has been held among students of the second year of study of

O. O. Bogomolets National Medical University in
Kiev. The number of participants was 343. Students were informed about the aim of the study, confidentiality of results' processing and agreed to take part in the study.
Statistical processing of results has been managed through Microsoft Excel system. Means and standard deviations were calculated, and the data were compared with each other according to a Student's t-criterion.

The main material study with full justification of results
According to Hall's method, EI of people is divided into three groups: high -70 scores, mean -from 69 to 40 scores and low -from 39 to 0 scores. Among 343 students only 5 showed high EI. That is 1,5% of the total participants' number and, because of that, the data were not considered during processing of the results. The group with mean EI counted 127 students, which is 37,02% of the total amount. The group with low EI turned out to be the most numerical: 211 students and 61,51 % of the total amount. These results coincided with the data of most researchers, who also have reported predominance of low scores of EI among medical students (Nazish, Muhammad, Imran & Anam, 2013;Lolaty, Tirgari & Fard, 2014;Nath, Ghosh & Das, 2015).
The results of the study are given in the table 1.
The received data suggest that the mean scores in the group with mean level of EI are generally higher than in the group with low level of EI. The level of «emotional awareness» is 1,62 times higher, «management of one's own emotions» -2,93 times, «self-motivation» -2,02 times, «empathy» -2,01 times, and «discrimination of other people's emotions» -2,36 times. Therefore, the biggest difference is observed in the results of «management of one's own emotions» -reducing almost by 3 times in the group with low EI.
Certain consistency is traced for all five components of EI and it is similar for both groups. Namely, there is a similar tendency in the increase or decrease of the magnitude of each score. «Emotional awareness», «self-motivation», «empathy», «discrimination of other people's emotions» fluctuate almost at the same level, and the score of «management of one's own emotions» is the smallest.
In the group with mean level of EI, «empathy» is the highest, whereas in the group with low level of EI «emotional awareness» takes that place.
Some number of students in the group with low EI should be mentioned separately.
Their level of emotional intelligence was determined on the base of 2 or 3 EI components only, because in other components they showed 0 score. For example, «emotional awareness» -7, «self-motivation» -0, «empathy» -5, «discrimination of other people's emotions» -0, «management of one's own emotions» -0. These results were observed below 18 as the total score and determined in 28 students, which is 13,27% in this group and 8,16% out of all participants.
We suppose that these data may indicate disharmonic psychological development of individuals.
In our research it has been found that the low level of emotional intelligence dominates among medical students. This correlates with the data of other scientists. A great number of researchers, who compared the data of EI among medical students of the first and last year of study, have reported that the level of emotional Table 1 Components of emotional intelligence in the groups with mean and low its level (М±m; n=127 -mean ЕІ, n=211 -low ЕІ)