“Learning to sip tea intelligently”: A phenomenographic exploration of midwifery students’ perceptions of emotional intelligence and its relationship to midwifery

Becoming a midwife is an inherently emotion filled experience that requires midwifery students to not only master the skills and competencies required for midwifery practice but to learn how to navigate the nuances and complexities of often-intense emotional experiences.These findings have implications for all those who support midwifery students within both academic and clinical spaces, to better prepare midwifery students to deal with the emotional load of midwifery and support the development of EI.