Introduction of emotional labour into oncology

Abstract

Health care professionals do not have emotional labour obligations in their employment contract. However, in everyday work it is often inevitable for them to change their true feelings. This is critically true for professionals treating chronic or cancer patients. The suitable emotional state of the treatment staff does not only influence the practitioner-patient relationship but the process of recovery as well. Depending on the way one might get into the appropriate emotional state, the literature distinguishes between surface, deep and genuine acting. While surface and deep emotional labour has numerous negative psychological consequences genuine acting is usually accompanied by positive side effects. For those working in the field of oncology, emotional labour is a part of the role expectations of the professionals. This is how the appropriate attitude is a fundamental part of the professionals' essence. For the in depth analysis of subjects related to emotional labour, the authors adopted ideas from L. Festinger 's cognitive dissonance theory. The best way to alleviate cognitive dissonance and the negative side effects of emotional labour is to prevent the emergence of them. Oncology professionals should fit their role expectations genuinely, without particular efforts. If this was impossible, or the particular life situations did not allow genuine acting, it is the employer's and the workmates' common duty to help professionals, to ease the load of emotional labour, to diminish the occurring cognitive dissonance with the help of appropriate recompense.