Empathic and listening styles of first year undergraduate nursing students: A cross-sectional study

Effective communication and empathy are fundamental to nurse-patient relationships and good nursing practice. Although the importance of listening is widely accepted in the nursing practice, little research exists regarding the empathic and listening styles of undergraduate nursing students.

This study investigated empathic and listening styles of first year nursing students.

A cross-sectional study of 135 first year Bachelor of Nursing (BN) students from one Australian university completed paper-based versions of the revised Listening Styles Profile (LSP) and Active-Empathic Listening Scale (AELS).

Participants reported strong preference for 'people' listening style and 'responding' empathic listening process. No statistically significant differences were found between male and female students. People-oriented LSP was strongly correlated with the three stages of AELS, Content-oriented LSP was strongly correlated with Processing and with Responding AELS and Action-oriented LSP was strongly correlated with Processing AELS.

It is not only important that communication skills training exists in the nursing curriculum but ensuring that knowledge learnt in the classroom is transferred to the clinical setting. Nurses must consistently implement active listening techniques and effective communication skills with all patients.