- 232 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
Do nurses still care? In today's inflexible, fast-paced and more accountable workplace where biomedical and clinical models dominate health care practice, is there room for emotional labour?
Based on original empirical research, this book delves into personal accounts of nurses' emotion expressions and experiences as they emerge from everyday nursing practice, and illustrates how their emotional labour is adapting in response to a constantly changing work environment.
The book begins by re-examining Arlie Hochschild's sociological notion of emotional labour, and combines it with Margaret Archer's understanding of emotion and the inner dialogue. In an exploration of the nature of emotional labour, its historical and political context, and providing original, but easily recognisable, typology, Catherine Theodosius emphasises that it is emotion â complex, messy and opaque â that drives emotional labour within health care. She suggests that rather than being marginalised, emotional labour in nursing is frequently found in places that are hidden or unrecognised. By understanding emotion itself, which is fundamentally interactive and communicative, she argues that emotional labour is intrinsically linked to personal and social identity. The suggestion is made that the nursing profession has a responsibility to include emotional labour within personal and professional development strategies to ensure the care needs of the vulnerable are met.
This innovative volume will be of interest to nursing, health care and sociology students, researchers and professionals.
Frequently asked questions
Information
Part I
Understanding emotional labour in nursing
Vignette 1 âHalf measuresâ Catherine: What would you describe as good care that gives you satisfaction? Paris: Good care: obviously clinically I would be able to look after my patients properly. But, psychologically, I could spend time with them and see what their fears are, what their worries are; to give them good pain control so that they are not in pain. I donât think we do it half the time. We are running the ward, and it is one of the most stressful wards as far as the patients are concerned because the majority of them, they come for major surgery. They come for aneurysm repair, bypass, they come for cancer. How many times do we get to tell them about their operation? How many times? We count it on our hand. I donât do it enough. I admit you I donât, because I am too conscious about not letting the next lady dehydrate and not leaving the other man in pain. You constantly want to see that everybodyâs need has been met halfway. Because I feel if I could go and give proper pre-op care, and sit with the patient for half an hour and the wife and the son and the daughter and answer their questions and make sure that psychologically they are cared for, then I have neglected somebody elseâs pain or somebody elseâs dressing or somebody has dehydrated because the fluid has been behind for six hours. What I do, which I am not happy about, is I try and meet everybodyâs needs halfway. So I know that he is moderately hydrated and that the IV is not behind three or four hours. I know that this patient has had all his oral analgesia, the dressing has been done, so he is not in pain because of his wound. But that is not good enough because the psychological care has gone out of the window. When I was a third year student â because I had more time, because I didnât have responsibilities and accountabilities â I had time to spend with the patient. Every cancer patient, Catherine, the doctor who went and told them about their diagnosis and prognosis, I remember, every single one of them. I pulled the curtain around and I sat with them, and I said, âDid you understand what he said?â I asked what their worries were. I went through with them what was going to happen, what was their after care. What their referrals were. They would say, âWho is Dr Smitt?â you know, and I would tell them. And then I would leave them and then go back twenty minutes, half an hour later to see how they were coping, if they had any more questions to ask. Iâd call the Macmillan nurse, call this and call that. I havenât done that since I qualified. I donât remember, maybe as a D grade I did a few, but not since I made E grade. So many times I have just burst into tears because of this situation and we do get involved a lot, especially if they |
are young. I have done this, six or seven times in handover, because the lady was dying. But it didnât help her. I think: âSo what? I got emotional but did it help her? Did I sit and talk to her about how she feels?â No, I didnât. As long as the patients are washed and they are in clean beds, that is all that matters now. They can be having the most difficult time of their life, thinking about what the doctors have told them without any nurses going to see how they feel, if they have any questions. That is not nursing care, it is total crap. |
1
Emotion management and emotional labour
Hochschildâs background
Emotion management
Emotion management in âHalf measuresâ (Vignette 1) The basic principle of emotion management can be identified in Parisâ vignette âHalf measuresâ. Paris tells us what it is that she is really feeling in respect to her dying lady. She is upset and this causes her to cry. When she is with her patient (front stage), she manages her feelings and displays a more appropriate face. This is emotion management. However, she tells us that she did cry in handover (back stage). On the ward there are areas that are accessible only to the nursing staff. This represents their âback stageâ areas. Handover on Ward B took place in the nursesâ staff room. It is here that Paris feels free to display her real emotions.Paris implies that ... |
Table of contents
- Critical Studies in Health and Society
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Table of vignettes
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction Challenging current conceptualisations of emotional labour
- Part I Understanding emotional labour in nursing
- Part II Developing emotional labour in nursing
- Bibliography
- Index