Foundation Course

Background: Foundation course has been introduced by the Medical Council of India (MCI) in the new curriculum to prepare a student to study medicine effectively. Emotional intelligence is one's ability to assess, express and control emotions and feelings in oneself and others, and differentiate among them and use them to solve any complex situations
Objectives: To evaluate the Emotional Intelligence of newly joined medical students after their two-month foundation course. To evaluate and compare the Emotional Intelligence of medical students of different years.
Methodology: A descriptive, cross‑sectional, questionnaire-based survey was conducted using a pre-designed, pre-validated questionnaire, which included Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale and Davis interpersonal reactivity index. Undergraduate medical students (newly joined first-year, second, and third-year medical students) who consented for the study, were the participants. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS-22.
Results: In our study, a total of 160 students participated. The first-year students scored higher on all domains [Total Emotional intelligence (p = 0.007)] compared to their colleagues except the Personal Distress domain (p = 0.005). Female students scored higher on Personal Distress (p = 0.016) and Empathic Concern (p = 0.026). The year of medical of education had a positive correlation with Personal distress domain (r = .212, p = 0.007)
Conclusion: Foundation Course is a step in the direction as could be seen by the changes in the Emotional intelligence of the first-year students. They were seen to be more perceptive of their own as well as other’s emotions. It was also seen that the first-year students fared better on conflict resolution skills.