The increasing complexity of the healthcare environment calls for increasing emotional intelligence (EI) competence in nurses so as to establish effective relationships that facilitate positive patient outcomes. Because nurses need to be competent in EI, it is important to determine if professional nursing programs prepare graduates in emotional intelligence and whether years of professional experience contribute to development of emotional intelligence. This study assessed the emotional intelligence competence of 164 baccalaureate nursing alumni who graduated during the years 2007-2010 from three Benedictine institutions in the Midwest to see if there was growth of EI with experience as a registered nurse, and to determine if age, gender, grade point average (GPA), and years of total healthcare work experience prior to graduation predicted EI. Participants completed the Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and a demographic survey. Findings from this study indicated 79.4% of participants were competent or higher on the MSCEIT total EI score. Percentages of nurses scoring in the competent or higher range on each of the four branch scores of perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions were 80.6%, 72.7%, 84.2%, and 84.9% respectively. An independent-sample t-test found no significant differences on EI scores between graduates with 1-2 years compared to 3-5 years of experience as a registered nurse. Results of a linear stepwise regression for determining the usefulness of age, GPA, gender, years of total healthcare experience prior to graduation and years of experience as an RN to predict the total EI score on the MSCEIT revealed being female as a significant predictor (p = .015). Being female was a significant predictor for the using emotions branch (p = .047). Significant predictors of EI on the understanding emotions branch were GPA (p < .001) and being female (p = .023). There were no significant findings regarding the perceiving and managing branches of the MSCEIT. The findings of this study indicate there is work to be done to improve the EI competence of nursing graduates. Continued research on the topic of EI and nursing is needed to build the knowledge base on how to promote positive patient outcomes.