Emotional Labor and Health Care

Abstract

We examine the literature on emotional labor and health care to demonstrate the potential for emotional labor research to inform how social and medical scientists think about health care and how examining healthcare contexts has contributed to the scientific understanding of emotional labor processes. In doing so, we first review the key terms and definitions that are used within the emotion management perspective and evaluate the ways in which power differences have remained largely implicit features of research on emotional labor in healthcare settings. Finally, we explore how the increasing economic rationalization of health care may be influencing the emotional experiences of today's healthcare professionals and the implications of this trend for future research on emotional labor and the health and well‐being of care providers and their patients.

Voices That Care: Licensed Practical Nurses and the Emotional Labour Underpinning Their Collaborative Interactions with Registered Nurses

“…At present, there is a dearth of knowledge about healthcare workers' and the emotional labours inherent in collaborative endeavours with colleagues: particularly, those experienced by staff in lower hierarchical positions [16, 22]. …”

Emotional Labour and Wellbeing: What Protects Nurses?

“…There is evidence that early career nurses are likely to react more negatively to the emotional demands of practice and are at high risk of stress and burnout [33,34]. The need for enhanced training and support to help them manage the emotional demands of the job role has been recognised.…”

Caring moments and their men: masculine emotion practice in nursing

“…Building on Hochschild (1983), research in the sociology of emotions has focused on how gender shaped the emotional labor of workers-the work that individuals had to perform on their emotions as a result of the demands of their jobs. This focus on emotion work in service to paid labor has produced a stunning array of empirical research, including research on airline attendants, pilots, lawyers and paralegals, nail salon workers, and healthcare workers (Erickson & Grove, 2008;Evans, 2013;Evans & Moore, 2015;Hochschild, 1983;Kang, 2010;Pierce, 1995;Stacey, 2011).…”