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| AUTHORS REPLY |
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| Year : 2016 | Volume
: 60
| Issue : 2 | Page : 166 |
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Emotional intelligence and stress in medical students performing surgical tasks
Nitin Joseph
Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Mangaluru, Karnataka, India
| Date of Web Publication | 23-Jun-2016 |
Correspondence Address:
Nitin Joseph
Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Mangaluru, Karnataka
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0019-557X.184577
How to cite this article:
Joseph N. Emotional intelligence and stress in medical students performing surgical tasks. Indian J Public Health 2016;60:166 |
How to cite this URL:
Joseph N. Emotional intelligence and stress in medical students performing surgical tasks. Indian J Public Health [serial online] 2016 [cited 2023 Mar 27];60:166. Available from: https://www.ijph.in/text.asp?2016/60/2/166/184577 |
Sir,
I appreciate the interest of the researcher toward this research study. As rightly suggested, a cross-section study has always a limitation to establish a temporal association between a cause and an effect.
In this study, the perceived stress secondary to coping mechanism of the person toward it was researched upon among medical students. Because coping mechanism tends to be different due to varying emotional intelligence (EI) among participants, the perceived stress was found to vary as well.
Now, stress is a state of the mind, and as you know, it is very dynamic and changes every now and then. Hence, even a follow-up study would not have helped the cause in accurately establishing a temporal association when variables such as stress are studied.
The perceived stress studied in this context was interpreted as the stress experienced following coping mechanism using EI and hence, definitely supports the findings of Arora et al. [1] Moreover, the conclusion from the study states, "The results of the present study may act as a stimulus for creating prevention projects focusing on improvement in EI rather than utilizing unconstructive ways of coping with occupational stress connected with the medical field." The message is very clear, which is EI should be developed as a means to improve the coping mechanism against stress.
As rightly pointed out, EI research still needs further developments to determine its role in improving functionality that was mentioned under limitations of this published work. This can be done by further studies where in interventions to improve EI can be implemented in medical colleges and later on, its benefits can be researched.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
 References | |  |
| 1. | Arora S, Russ S, Petrides KV, Sirimanna P, Aggarwal R, Darzi A, et al. Emotional intelligence and stress in medical students performing surgical tasks. Acad Med 2011;86:1311-7.  |
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