Evidence and Strategies for Inclusion of Emotional Intelligence in Pharmacy Education.

Objective. This integrative review summarizes the literature addressing emotional intelligence among healthcare professionals and students in order to better define and incorporate it into the pharmacy curricula. Findings. Emotional intelligence is an essential attribute for relationship building, stress management, and self-regulation. It is imperative for pharmacy students to develop and improve their emotional intelligence in order to support the development of successful relationships with patients, pharmacy colleagues, and other healthcare providers. In addition, awareness of one’s own biases and emotions can help regulate behaviors so as to facilitate enhanced communications with others. There is increasing evidence that emotional intelligence can influence academic success, ability to provide compassionate and competent patient care, ability to lead and influence others, and manage stress, all of which are extremely important in pharmacy education. Educators can help learners develop emotional intelligence by designing activities that directly identify and target areas of weakness while leveraging areas of strength. Summary. This article discusses key background studies on emotional intelligence in the health professions literature and identifies specific methods and strategies to develop learners’ emotional intelligence within the curriculum.