ASSOCIATION OF SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AMONG STUDENTS IN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTORS NURSING INSTITUTES IN DISTRICT PESHAWAR

Abstract

Background: Higher education is acknowledged to include self-directed learning (SDL) as one of its primary goals. The capacity to control one's emotions and produce happy feelings is essential for supporting self-directed learning (SDL) and emotional intelligence (EI), two concepts that are critical to nursing students' learning in both clinical and academic contexts.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate undergraduate nursing students at Peshawar's public and private nursing colleges' preparedness for self-directed learning as well as their emotional intelligence.

Methodology: Between December 2022 and March 2023, a descriptive cross-sectional (analytical) study was conducted at each of Khyber Pukhtankhwa four nursing colleges. This study involved 271 undergraduate students from public and private institutions who were enrolled in second, third, and fourth year Bachelor of Science in Nursing programs as well as second year Post RN BSN programs. The relevant institutions granted their consent for the data gathering. The Self Directed Learning Readiness (SDLR) questionnaire and the Emotional Intelligence Scale were used to gather data.

Results: The mean age of the nurses was 30.8 years, and around 80% of them were female. Nursing students exhibit an appropriate degree of SDLR, as indicated by their mean score of 161.6043. Students' EI and SDLR showed a statistically significant correlation, with P values less than 0.05 in the majority of components indicating a desire for self-learning. A significant contribution to raising emotional intelligence is self-directed learning. A sort of self-directed learning strategy that is gaining traction in place of the lecture method in the educational system is problem-based learning. The effectiveness of PBL has been amply demonstrated by international research across numerous fields. Nonetheless, there is a paucity of research on PBL in Pakistani nursing education.

Conclusion: It is acknowledged that one of the main goals of higher education is self-directed learning. According to the study, those who demonstrated a sufficient degree of preparation for self-directed learning also exhibited high levels of emotional intelligence. The association between a student's EI status and SDLR proficiency is also seen in this study. The importance of emotional intelligence (EI) on self-directed learning and the role that SDL plays in higher education were the study's conclusions.  The study provides sufficient evidence to suggest that the emotionally intelligent students were self-directed.