Ebtsam Aly Abou Hashish^{1, 2,}, Erada Fouad Bajbeir²

Background: Emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills can prepare nursing students for delivering competent nursing practice and help them adapt to the clinical environment. Although personal emotion is important in critical thinking, it is often a neglected issue to explore the nature of the relationship between emotional intelligence and critical thinking disposition together among nursing students. Objective: This study aimed to describe the emotional intelligence among Saudi nursing students and its relationship to their critical thinking disposition. Methods: a descriptive correlational research design was conducted using a convenient sample of all Saudi nursing students (N=300) studying at College of Nursing- Jeddah (CON-J), King Saud bin Abdul-Aziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Emotional Intelligence Scale and Critical Thinking Disposition Scale were used to collect the data after obtaining the official and ethical approvals. Results: the highest percentages of nursing students have a relatively high level of emotional intelligence (54.9%) and moderate (66.4%) disposition towards critical thinking. Emotional intelligence was significantly correlated to critical thinking disposition (r = 0.594, p< 0.001) and can predict it where the regression model is significant (F= 52.404, p <0.001). Moreover, nursing students differ significantly across academic levels regarding their perception of both skills. Conclusion & Recommendations: Fostering emotional intelligence and critical thinking disposition among nursing students would enhance their problem-solving skills and judgment abilities which in turn, lead to providing more qualified clinical services. Educational training courses, workshops and, seminars should be prepared specifically for all academic levels for more development and enhancement of these skills. In addition, emotional intelligence and critical thinking disposition ought to be considered for more inclusion and incorporation in the undergraduate and graduate nursing curricula. Further study should be preceded as a longitudinal design because the development of both skills requires a long time.

emotional intelligence, critical thinking disposition, nursing students, nursing education programs