Emotional Boundary Work in Advanced Fertility Nursing Roles

Abstract

In this article we examine the nature of intimacy and knowing in the nurse-patient relationship in the context of advanced nursing roles in fertility care. We suggest that psychoanalytical approaches to emotions may contribute to an increased understanding of how emotions are managed in advanced nursing roles. These roles include nurses undertaking tasks that were formerly performed by doctors. Rather than limiting the potential for intimacy between nurses and fertility patients, we argue that such roles allow nurses to provide increased continuity of care. This facilitates the management of emotions where a feeling of closeness is created while at the same time maintaining a distance or safe boundary with which both nurses and patients are comfortable. We argue that this distanced or 'bounded' relationship can be understood as a defence against the anxiety of emotions raised in the nurse-fertility patient relationship.

The Value of Nursing: a Literature Review

“…22 The intricate nature of caring in nursing has often been debated given that nursing has historically emphasized the need for nurses to separate their professional life from private emotions.…”

A Process Model of Emotional Labor of Nursing: Case Study of Two Chinese Public Hospitals

“…To a nurse, the emotional technique is as important as clinical technique (de Castro, 2004). A lot of scholars have studied emotional labor in different clinical environments to reveal the ways that nurses manage their own emotions as well as the emotions of their patients (Allan & Barber, 2005;Gray & Smith, 2009;Henderson, 2001;Rivers, Brackett, Katulak, & Salovey, 2007;Sorensen & Iedema, 2009). Most studies on the emotional labor techniques of nursing focus on emotional detachment (McQueen, 2004).…”

“…Due to differences in emotional labor in different clinical scenarios (Allan & Barber, 2005), comparative studies on the cause and consequences of emotional labor of nursing are necessary. We have selected two well-managed hospitals with good nursing services as study fields so that we can focus on the situation factors while minimizing the individual factors and organizational factors.…”

“…Scholars have focused on some emotional labor techniques such as humorous face, smiling face, and professional face (Bolton, 2001), emotional detachment (Henderson, 2001;McQueen, 2004), and emotional distance (Allan & Barber, 2005). However, some important and useful aspects in emotion regulation theory, like deep action and surface action, are neglected (Grandey, 2000).…”

Shaping the Role of sub-Saharan African Nurses and Midwives: Stakeholder’s perceptions of the Nurses’ and Midwives’ tasks and roles

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