A Conceptual analysis of tech-savvy trait, emotional intelligence and customer-oriented behaviour among Malaysian nursing students

Abstract

, Today, the delivery of care is undergoing drastic shifts, everything from where we deliver care to how we provide care. Emerging technologies and innovations are being positioned to disrupt not only healthcare, but also nursing practice. A new generation of nursing students, Generation Z, are entering undergraduate educational programs and are starting to move into the nursing profession. Generation Z or Gen Z are known as digitally tech-savvy individuals born from 1992 onwards. Generation Z is comfortable with technologies and they are also referred as the "digital natives". Researchers reported the new generation of nursing graduates enter the nursing profession feeling unprepared to address the demands of patient care proficiently. Customer-oriented behaviour has been validated as the primary approach to achieve higher quality of care and improving patients’ satisfaction with the healthcare service delivered. Meanwhile, emotional intelligence is a crucial concept for nurses to understand the patients’ perspectives and demands. Extensive researches have empirically supported that emotional intelligence is related to behaviour. Owing to that fact, this paper aims to impart a conceptual analysis of the relationship between tech-savvy trait and customer-oriented behaviour among Malaysian nursing students and mediates by emotional intelligence. This conceptual paper is guided by trait theory and emotional intelligence theory in establishing the proposed theoretical framework. Our conceptual analysis suggests that emotional intelligence significantly mediates the relationship between tech-savvy trait and customer-oriented behaviour. In addition, this study provides an avenue for researchers to examine customer-oriented behaviour in the healthcare context of nursing students population, expansion of trait theory by including a new construct of tech-savvy trait as well as the inclusion of emotional intelligence as a mediator.