Emotional intelligence and the relationship to resident performance: a multi-institutional study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that emotional intelligence, as measured by a BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), the 125-item version personal inventory (EQ-i:125), correlates with resident performance. DESIGN Survey (personal inventory) instrument. SETTING Five U.S. academic anesthesiology residency programs. PARTICIPANTS Postgraduate year (PGY) 2, 3, and 4 residents enrolled in university-based anesthesiology residency programs. MEASUREMENTS Residents confidentially completed the BarOn EQ-i:125 personal inventory. The deidentified resident evaluations were sent to the principal investigator of a separate data collection study for data analysis. Data collected from the inventory were correlated with daily evaluations of the residents by residency program faculty. Results of the individual BarOn EQ-i:125 and daily faculty evaluations of the residents were compiled and analyzed. MAIN RESULTS Univariate correlation analysis and multivariate canonical analysis showed that some aspects of the BarOn EQ-i:125 were significantly correlated with, and likely to be predictors of, resident performance. CONCLUSIONS Emotional intelligence, as measured by the BarOn EQ-i personal inventory, has considerable promise as an independent indicator of performance as an anesthesiology resident.