Self-Reported Emotional Intelligence Levels and Leadership Behaviors of Turkish Nursing Students and Related Factors: A Multicenter, Cross-Sectional, Descriptive Study

Background: Nurses with advanced leadership characteristics and emotional intelligence should be trained to deliver high-quality, efficient, cost-effective health care. This study aimed to determine Turkish student nurses' self-reported leadership behaviors and emotional intelligence levels and the influencing factors.Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive survey was conducted among 1105 student nurses in T & uuml;rkiye. Data were collected using a personal characteristics form, a leadership survey evaluating different leadership styles, and an emotional intelligence scale.Results: In this study, it was found that emotional intelligence scale scores of nursing students were quite high (mean: 138 +/- 25.1). There was a significant positive correlation between emotional intelligence and all leadership behaviors (p = 0.001). The highest mean score of the students was received from the people-focused leadership behaviors (32.3 +/- 5.01), while the lowest was in transformational leadership behaviors (27.5 +/- 6.03). The results show that besides demographic factors such as gender and place of living, exceptionally high education level of the mother and positive parent attitudes were found to have significant effects on the students' emotional intelligence levels and leadership behaviors.Conclusions: Leadership and emotional intelligence concepts should be approached in an integrated way during nursing education. Targeted educational interventions and family-inclusive programs are recommended to support the development of students' leadership and emotional intelligence skills, which may ultimately contribute to improved patient care quality and team collaboration in clinical settings.