Emotional Intelligence: Critical for Patient Safety and Professional Success

Professional education and training for physician anesthesiologists has traditionally focused on a fund of knowledge, complemented with necessary technical/procedural skills. An untapped opportunity lies in building the skill-set necessary to master cognitive decision-making with emotional intelligence (EI). The original definition of EI is “the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions; to discriminate among them; and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.”¹  Physicians with high EI have greater rates of job satisfaction, less “burnout,” improved patient-physician relationships, higher levels of patient satisfaction, and are more effective leaders and communicators.²  The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has recognized the vital role EI plays in becoming an effective physician and has incorporated EI principles into the curriculum for all resident physicians.³  In this introduction to EI, we will focus on how the interplay between knowing and managing one’s emotions and...