An investigation of emotional labor strategies on the basis of empathy among nurses working at intensive care and inpatient units

Abstract

Objective: Intensive care nurses produce emotional labor through Deep Acting by generating empathetic emotional and cognitive reactions during their interactions with patients. On the other hand they produce emotional labor through Surface Acting whereby they forge empathic behaviors towards patients in the absence of appropriate emotional and cognitive actions. The present study explored emotional labor strategies on the basis of empathy among nurses working at intensive care and in-patient units. Methods: The present study was carried out in a state hospital in Istanbul. The sample of the study consisted of 116 nurses. Emotional Labor Scale, the Empathy Scale and a demographic questionnaire were used to gather data. Results: The hypotheses that as compared with in-patient care nurses, the empathy levels of intensive care nurses would be higher; nurses who have high levels of empathy would show higher levels of deep acting and emotional effort than nurses who have medium or low levels of empathy; nurses who have high levels of empathy would show lower levels of surface acting than nurses who have medium or low levels of empathy; and as compared with in-patient care nurses, intensive care nurses would show higher levels of deep acting and emotional effort and lower levels of surface acting, were not supported by the data. Conclusion: The results have shown that intensive-care nurses do not have higher levels of empathy, and they do not use deep acting and emotional effort more than inpatient clinic nurses. These findings indicate that regardless of the characteristics of the working environment, the nurses show empathy and use emotional labor strategies. More research is needed to understand these findings. Key words: