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Emotional Intelligence in Undergraduate Nursing Education: The Essential Extra. A Critical Analysis of Emotional Intelligence Discourses in New Zealand Undergraduate Nursing Education

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Date

2024

Authors

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Spence, Deb
Stewart, Angela
Neville, Stephen

Item type

Thesis

Degree name

Doctor of Health Science

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Publisher

Auckland University of Technology

Abstract

Driven by the need to understand how nursing education shapes the development of EI in nursing students, this study investigated the impact of the dominant discourses operating within undergraduate nursing education in New Zealand. Examining how these discourses construct, position and influence EI development provided insight into their influence and potential role in promoting or hindering EI development. This illuminated existing challenges in the development of EI in nursing students so as to guide future efforts. A critical discourse analysis methodology, informed by the work of Fairclough (1995) and Huckin (1997), was used to examine five influential documents that impacted the education and development of undergraduate nursing students. The documents included the professional competency requirements for nurses, the undergraduate nursing curricula from three tertiary institutions, and a widely used nursing textbook within New Zealand undergraduate programs. The documents were selected based on their privileged position in guiding the development of undergraduate nursing knowledge and competencies, which gives them authority and influence within nursing theory and practice. A thematic approach was used for the analysis at a textual and discourse practice level. Critical and social constructionist theory was then used to provide a contextualised interpretation of the powerful discursive forces impacting the inclusion of emotional intelligence development within undergraduate nursing education. Paradoxically, while the study found undergraduate nursing students were discursively positioned as needing to develop emotional intelligence to become nursing professionals, explicit requirements for emotional intelligence development were found to be conspicuous by its absence within undergraduate nursing education. The various discourses within the analysed texts and the broader nursing context were found to both promote and hinder the development of emotional intelligence. In addressing this, the study argues for explicitly including emotional intelligence development requirements within undergraduate nursing education in preparation for the emotional realities of nursing. Additionally, incorporating specific emotional intelligence-related competencies within the Nursing Council of New Zealand Competencies for Registered Nurses document would promote the standardisation of emotional intelligence development for all future nurses.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10292/18225

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Doctoral Theses