Emotional Intelligence and Communication Skills in Healthcare University Students: The Mediating Role of Interpersonal Skills

Although high-quality healthcare requires both technical expertise and soft skills, the precise connections between emotional intelligence (EI), interpersonal skills (IS), and communication skills (CS) remain insufficiently explored. This lack of research creates an educational gap in training students to effectively manage clinical anxiety. This study aims to analyze the predictive and mediational role of IS between EI and CS in healthcare undergraduates. A quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted with 816 Spanish undergraduate healthcare students recruited between October and December 2024. The inclusion criteria required participants to be actively enrolled in a healthcare degree and provide written informed consent. Data from four standardized self-reports were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) estimated via Unweighted Least Squares (ULS) to account for non-normal data distributions. The structural model showed that EI positively predicted IS (β = 0.69) and directly predicted CS (β = 0.35). Crucially, IS strongly predicted CS (β = 0.69), acting as a key psychological mediator. Together, EI and IS explained 91% of the variance in communication skills (R2 = 0.91). These findings imply that interpersonal skills structurally translate internal emotional regulation into effective outward communication. For educators and professionals, this underscores the need for healthcare training to move beyond basic communication protocols to integrate formal emotional intelligence and social skills programs to enhance clinical patient safety and prevent student burnout.