Perceived Emotional Aptitude of Clinical Laboratory Sciences Students Compared to Students in Other Healthcare Profession Majors

Abstract

Emotional aptitude can be defined as the ability to recognize and manage one's own emotions and interpret the emotions of others. It has been speculated that Clinical Laboratory Sciences students may lack the emotional skills to most effectively interact with patients and other healthcare professionals, therefore a logical hypothesis would be that they would evaluate their own emotional intelligence lower than students from other healthcare majors. While this has been a topic of discussion in healthcare, a lack of research has been conducted to validate this assumption. This study assesses the perceived emotional aptitude of Clinical Laboratory Sciences students compared to students of other healthcare majors in the Dumke College of Health Professions at Weber State University. The perceived emotional aptitude of the healthcare students was determined by completion of a self-evaluation questionnaire that included questions about one's emotions, their understanding of others' emotions, and how they manage conflict. A total of 401 questionnaires were completed, compiled, and analyzed. Although minor differences were seen in the responses, statistical analysis found these differences to be insignificant. The perceived emotional aptitude of Clinical Laboratory Sciences students was insignificantly different than that of students of other healthcare majors at the Dumke College of Health Professions.