Abstract
This study aims to apply Hochschild's theory of emotional labour to emergency care, and uncover the 'specialty-specific' feeling rules driving this labour. Despite the importance of positive nurse well-being, the emotional labour of nursing (a great influencer in wellbeing) remains neglected. Ethnography enabled immersion in the ED setting, gathering the lived experiences and narratives of the ED nursing team. We undertook first-hand observations at one major trauma centre ED and one district general ED including semi-structured interviews (18). A reflexive and interpretive approach towards thematic analysis was used. We unearthed and conceptualized four feeling rules born from this context and offer extensive insights into the emotional labour of emergency nurses. Understanding the emotional labour and feeling rules of various nursing specialties offers critical insight into the challenges facing staff - fundamental for nursing well-being and associated retention programs. What problem did the study address? What were the main findings? Where and on whom will the research have impact? Academically, this research expands our understanding - we know little of nurses' feeling rules and how specialties influence them. Clinically, (including service managers and policy makers) there are practical implications for nurse well-being.
Highlights
Around the globe, challenges facing healthcare systems have implications for staff providing care
We unearthed and conceptualized four feeling rules born from this context and offer extensive insights into the emotional labour of emergency nurses
We present four feeling rules which underpin this emotional labour. As part of these findings, we present ethnographic insights into the ED environment to offer a contextual backdrop to the feeling rules and emotional labour
Summary
Challenges facing healthcare systems have implications for staff providing care. Despite emphasis on the physicality and clinical skills of nursing work, many tasks involved in care are ‘invisible’ (Allen, 2014). Much of this nursing work is taken for granted by healthcare organizations and, by its concealed nature, is difficult to quantify and even describe, let alone value. Hochschild (1983) describes emotional labour as ‘the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display’ Emotional labour is underpinned by feeling rules, providing standards in this feeling management, determining what is owned and accepted between individuals in ‘the currency of feeling’ Feeling rules are moral stances guiding and effecting how we behave (Smith, 2012)
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