Care = organisation + physical labour + emotional labour

Abstract

The formula 'care = organisation -I-physical labour -Iemotional labour' identifies component parts of 'carework' as they were observed at a hospice. A comparison between women's domestic carework and that of the hospice nurses is made firstly to clarify the component elements of care and secondly to show how the interrelation and balance of the components differs in the two settings. It is argued that family care has been a model for hospice care but that division of labour in hospices, which replicates hospital labour-divisions, results in an inflexibility in hospice care which is incompatible with the 'family' model. In the final section it is suggested that emotional labour is likely to be increasingly recognised as part of health care but that the concept of 'total care' needs to be questioned.

Conceptualising Body Work in Health and Social Care

“…Although the concept of 'emotional labour' was initially developed within the commercial service sectors, sociologists of health and illness have also recognised and demonstrated that working, with, for and on bodies in health and social care settings is emotionally draining, laborious and demanding (James, 1989(James, , 1992. 'Emotional labour' maps neatly on to the gendered occupational hierarchies of health care, with the privileged, predominantly male professions relegating the emotional work, along with the other 'dirty work', to those lower down the pecking order.…”

Caregiving at night: Understanding the impact on carers

“…James (1992) introduced a three-fold classification of care provision as 'physical labour' (ADL and IADL tasks), 'emotional labour' and 'managerial or organizational labour'. 'Emotional labour' or emotional support is harder to measure than 'physical labour'.…”

The provision of emotional labour by health care assistants caring for dying cancer patients in the community: A qualitative study into the experiences of health care assistants and bereaved family carers

“…Originally defined by Hochschild (1983) as 'the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display,' (Hochschild, 1983, p.7) the concept of emotional labour has been applied to nursing (Bartram et al 2012;Gray 2009;Hayward & Tuckey 2011;James 1992;Schell & Kayser-Jones 2007;Skilbeck & Payne 2003;Smith 1992;Yang & Chang 2008) in general, and more specifically to HCAs involved in community palliative care work (Munday 2007;Ferguson et al 1998). Emotional labour involves consciously working to present emotions that enable a person's job to be performed effectively, and sometimes requires a person to suppress their inner emotions in order to do this.…”