Empathy and listening style among occupational therapists in Malaysia

As an occupational therapist, listening and empathy are critical components of practice because they are the foundation for developing therapeutic rapport with patients and their relatives. Currently, there is still no study regarding the level of empathy and listening styles among Occupational therapists in Malaysia. This study investigates the level of empathy and listening styles among occupational therapists in Malaysia and to examine their correlations.

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 244 occupational therapy practitioners; 43 males; and 181 females. The level of empathy and listening style were assessed using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy Health Professional version and Listening Styles Profile- Revised questionnaires. Data were collected using Google Form. Analysis data were done using IBM SPSS Statistical Software version 26.

Statistical analysis showed that Malaysia occupational therapists preferred perspective taking (mean 55.67, Standard Deviation, SD 10.54) in empathy and the analytical listening in listening styles approach (mean 34.71, SD 6.76). In addition, there was a moderate to strong significant correlation between the level of empathy and listening styles (r= 0.419 to 0.648, p<0.05). Furthermore, there is significant difference between listening styles and empathy in relation to gender (male>female) p=0.001-0.038), race (Indian higher than Malay and Chinese) and areas of practice (paediatric higher than psychiatric) (p= 0.016 to 0.039).

The findings are helpful for occupational therapists to improve their quality services by being more listening and empathetic while providing proper intervention to the patients.