Background: Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to recognize and manage one’s own and
others’ emotions, empathy is the ability to understand how others feel, whereas alexithymia represents the
difficulty in feeling and verbally expressing emotions. Emotional competences are important requirements
for positive outcomes in nursing profession. The aim of the study: To analyze EI, empathy and alexithymia in
nursing students. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey in a sample of 237 students (53 males, 184
females), attending both the 1st and 3rd year of the University Nursing Course in Modena. We administered
three Italian validated scales: Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT), Jefferson Scale of
Empathy - Health Professions Student ( JSE-HPS), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Data were statistically
analyzed. Results: Statistically significant differences were found between the 1st and 3rd year students
at SSEIT (t=-0.6, p=0.52), JSE-HPS (t=-3.2, p=0.0016) and TAS-20 scores (t=-3.54, p=0.0005). Among
3rd- year students, females obtained significantly different scores from those of males at SSEIT (t=2.8,
p=0.006). All three scales reported a Cronbach’s alpha >0.80. SSEIT correlated positively with JSE-HPS
(Spearman’s rho=0.15, p=0.02) and negatively with TAS-20 (Spearman’s rho=-0.18, p=0.006). Conclusions:
Our study highlighted a good level of emotional skills among students at the beginning of nursing training,
further increased by the last year of the course, suggesting that emotional competences can be learned, and
confirmed that empathy, but not alexithymia, is a dimension of EI
