In the educational system, the emphasis is purely on academic ability, and Emotional Intelligence (EI) is ignored, but social and emotional abilities and competencies are considered among the determining factors in academic success. Given the importance of EI and lack of attention to this issue in the curriculum of the students and the quality of the performance of the educational system in this regard, this study was conducted to investigate EI among students of the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Zahedan. This study is a descriptive-analytical one of cross-sectional type. It has conducted on 120 nursing and midwifery students in 2016. To collect data, a two-part questionnaire was used. The first part was related to demographic characteristics and second part was standard EI questionnaire by Bradbury-Graves. After collecting the questionnaires, data were analyzed using SPSS 19 software The results showed that the mean age of people was 36.54 ± 10.03. The overall mean of EI among students was 110.81±15.8that is reported to be high according to the rating of the questionnaires. This mean for of selfconsciousness was 25.90 ± 4.34; self-management, 32.67 ± 6.07; social awareness, 20.12 ± 3.50 and relationship management, 32.10±6.04. The relationship between age and marital status with mean scores of EI and each of its components was not statistically significant (P> 0.05). The results of the study showed that EI is high among nursing and midwifery students. Given the importance of EI in health promotion and subsequently academic achievement, it is recommended that EI and the need to promote it be taken into consideration in university curriculum.
