*ANOVA
Post-hoc analysis: CET score of completely satisfied was significantly higher than somewhat satisfied and completely unsatisfied students. PMP and TA score of completely satisfied students was significantly higher than all other categories. CSE score of completely satisfied was significantly higher than somewhat satisfied and completely unsatisfied students. There was overall significant difference between the SISRI score of completely satisfied and somewhat unsatisfied participants with the rest of them. In CET domain – the SISRI Scores of participants who were completely satisfied was seen to be significantly higher than somewhat satisfied and completely unsatisfied ones. In PMP domain – the SISRI score was significantly higher for the participants who were completely satisfied in comparison to all other categories of satisfaction. In TA domain – the SISRI scores of completely satisfied participants was significantly higher compared to all other groups and score of completely unsatisfied group was significantly lower compared to all groups.
Those having moderate to high SI were found to be enjoying their work/were less often stressed by it, however due to lower number of participants in low SI category, it was not possible to attach any statistical conclusion.
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Association between Spiritual intelligence and Burnout: SI of those having burnout (n = 81) was 55 (SD:13.91) and those not having burnout (n = 46) was 62.28 (SD:15.2), and the difference was significant (p = 0.007)
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Participant perception about Spiritual Intelligence, its importance and relevance of the present study and the present study: Table 3 provides participants’ responses to questionnaire on their perception about SI, its importance and relevance of the present study.
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SI and engagement in religious practices: Seventy one percent participants reported that they are engaging themselves in one or the other spiritual practices daily, viz. prayer, meditation, scriptural reading, etc. daily. There was statistically significant difference between SISRI scores of those undertaking religious/spiritual practices (n = 090, mean 59.9063, SD 14.40181) to those not undertaking similar practices regularly (n = 36, mean 50.7333, SD 14.06618) (p = 0.003)
Table 3
participants’ responses to questionnaire on their perception about SI, its importance and relevance of the present study.
Sr No | Question | Positive respondents (%) (5 or more on a Likert scale of 0–10) |
1 | Was the survey useful? | 93 |
2 | Were you aware about spiritual intelligence before participating in this study? | 77 |
3 | Was there clarity in the questionnaire? | 95 |
4 | Was the questionnaire relevant? | 93 |
5 | Did you have any difficulty in answering the questions? | 51 |
6 | Has the survey resulted in increasing the self-awareness about various components of spiritual intelligence? | 90 |
| Do you think this understanding will improve your understanding of life? | 93 |
7 | Do you think that understanding about SI is important in medical profession? | 93 |
8 | Do you feel that there is a scope of improvement in emphasizing this dimension in medical education? | 93 |
9 | Do you feel that a healthcare professional is a human being first and professional next? | 94 |
10 | Do you consider education about oneself and awareness about one’s inner dimensions is important in addition to subject knowledge? | 92 |
11 | Should it be taught/ Included in mainstream education? | 87 |
Discussion: Our findings indicate that students entering medical college are aware about the concept of spirituality and view it as a necessary component of education. The students demonstrated moderate/high overall spiritual intelligence as well as its 4 subcomponents (viz., ‘Critical thinking,’ ‘Discovery of Personal Meaning’, ‘Spiritual/Transcendental awareness’, ‘Conscious state expansion’). There was positive association of SI with work satisfaction, wellbeing, and lesser burnout. Majority students engage in spiritual/religious activities.
Many studies have shown positive correlation between spiritual intelligence and clinical competency, academic achievements, class-room culture, meta-personal self-construal, and life satisfaction. (10, 11, 12, 13) Higher SI has been shown to empower an individual to think maturely and meaningfully, and increase one’s adaptiveness. (14) It has been found to be associated with better acquisition of life skills, besides strengthening faith in Supreme Benevolence Entity. (15)
From amongst several tools available to assess SI, we used Spiritual Intelligence Self-Reporting Inventory-24. It has been found to have acceptable validity and reliability in Indian population. (16) Results of the study show internal consistency for SISRI questionnaire. Although, we did not think that it measures the broad concept of spirituality as provided in Indian scriptures, yet use of SISRI helped in obtaining some of its functional attributes.
Use of self-report questionnaire is indispensable to capture psychological processes driving human learning, such as learners’ emotions, motivation, strategy use, and metacognition. (17). Pedagogically, it provides a transformational teaching-learning approach which facilitates conceptual widening beyond immediate contexts.
Students found the questionnaire easy to comprehend. The study helped students to reflect about spirituality and its importance. It helped in enhancing their clarity about spirituality. They agreed that the present study would help in improving their understanding of life, as ‘man’ in a doctor is greater than the /doctor’ in ‘man.’ They also expressed that it is important to include spirituality in mainstream education.
Four subcomponents of SI represent different abilities helpful in addressing several existential issues. ‘Critical thinking’ bestows an ability to think critically about meaning, purpose of life and its events. ‘Discovery of Personal Meaning’ confers ability to create meaning and purpose in one's life. ‘Spiritual/Transcendental awareness’ confers a sense of security, and innate coping strength and reliance on ‘Higher Power.’ ‘Conscious state expansion’ leads to enhancement of wellbeing. (18). High spiritual intelligence allows one to unify flexibility and emotional resilience to make sense of reality in a totalitarian manner and construct aims and values. (19) It is widely accepted that SI of an individual can be measured and developed.
It may be almost unconceivable to imagine lack of association between spirituality and religion in the Indian context because religion is viewed as a gate and a way to spirituality; the later essentially transcending the former. Majority of students were regularly undertaking religious/spiritual practices. There was significant difference between SI of those undertaking religious practices and those not undertaking them. It has been reported that religious/spiritual framework empower help students in coping with the stress of medical school and practice patient-centered care. (20) Studies among students of higher education have shown that a large number of students report a strong sense of personal spirituality and pursue religious/spiritual activities of their choice. (21) Ina cross sectional study in medical students in South India it was observed that majority of the medical undergraduates students had fair spiritual health, which was significantly associated with parents' education levels and nuclear family.(22)
There are several important pedagogic implications of our findings, both for students and educators: (i) Students enter the medical course at an age when to understand the real meaning of becoming a doctor is difficult. Their journey begins with the choice of a unique professional branch, not aware to a large extent about the complexities and challenges that lie ahead. A medical student, like anyone else of his age, is still in the process of identifying his personality and formulating his professional identity. Results of the study, in this backdrop offer a reassuring information about students’ inherent meaning making and synthesizing capacities. (ii) We as educators know that the prodigious demands of the medical profession cannot be met by subject specific competencies alone. A pedagogic approach based on spirituality can develop a millennial generation that constantly hones teachers’ and students’ knowledge and skills to fulfill the requirements of the contemporary world. (22)
Increasing recognition and awareness about the principle of spirituality in the minds of people reflects expanding scales of human awareness, capacities, or Consciousness. If the evolution of life from stardust to mineral, vegetable, animal, and human existence implies some form of intelligence rather than being a purely random process, it is certainly an inherent spiritual consciousness, which has evolved so far and is still evolving further. What is the reason behind such an expansion? Sri Aurobindo describes the ‘why’ of this process: ‘The animal is a living laboratory in which Nature has, it is said, worked out man. Man himself may well be a thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious co-operation she wills to work out the superman, the god.’ (23)
A longitudinal study would have been more informative about the temporal changes in SI along the course of the study. Like any other self-reporting study, our study could have inherent limitations such as biases of social desirability, introspective ability, and response sets and memory biases.