Development of Emotional Intelligence in a Team-based Learning Internal Medicine Clerkship

Background: Although increasing number of articles have been published on team-based learning (TBL), none has explored team emotional intelligence.

Aim: We extend the literature by examining changes in team emotional intelligence during a third year clerkship where TBL is a primary instructional strategy. We hypothesized that team emotional intelligence will change in a positive direction (i.e., increase) during the clerkship.

Method: With IRB approval, during the 2009-2010 academic year third-year students in their internal medicine clerkship (N = 105, 100% response rate) completed the Workgroup Emotional Intelligence Profile - Short Version (WEIP-S) at the beginning and at the end of their 12-week clerkship. TBL is an instructional strategy utilized during the internal medicine clerkship.

Results: Paired t-tests showed that team emotional intelligence increased significantly pre to post clerkship for three of the four areas: awareness of own emotions (p = 0.018), recognizing emotions in others (p = 0.031), and ability to manage other's emotions (p = 0.013). There was no change for ability to control own emotions (p = 0.570).

Conclusion: In an internal medicine clerkship, where TBL is utilized as an instructional strategy, team emotional intelligence increases. This supports TBL as an adjunctive tool to traditional medical education pedagogy.