Emotional labour and stress within mental health nursing

Abstract

For many within the nursing profession, the work role involves a great deal of emotional work or 'emotional labour'. Such emotional work can be performed through 'surface acting' in which the individual simply feigns an appropriate emotion, or through 'deep acting' in which they actually try to feel the required emotion. The current study aims to aid understanding of the complex relationship between components of emotional labour and stress within the mental health nursing sector. Thirty-five mental health nurses completed questionnaires relating to a total of 122 nurse-patient interactions. Data were collected in relation to: (1) the duration and intensity of the interaction; (2) the variety of emotions expressed; (3) the degree of surface or deep acting the nurse performed; and (4) the perceived level of stress the interaction involved. Nurses also completed Daily Stress Indicators. Results suggest that: (1) emotional labour is positively correlated with both 'interaction stress' and daily stress levels; (2) the deeper the intensity of interactions and the more variety of emotions experienced, the more emotional labour was reported; and (3) surface acting was a more important predictor of emotional labour than deep acting. Implications for mental health nurses are outlined.

Emotional Labour in University Lecturers: Considerations for Higher Education Institutions

“…Warranting further investigation then, this study examines emotional labour in a sample of university lecturers in order to achieve several objectives and aims. Firstly, to establish current levels of emotional labour in university lectures and compare these with published norms emanating from two emotional labour studies undertaken with a diverse range of occupational job roles by Mann (1999a) and Mann and Cowburn (2005). In the light of existing research and recent and ongoing change and development in higher education, it is anticipated that university lecturers will report higher levels of emotional labour compared to published norms.…”

“…Published norms data originate from two emotional labour studies, Mann and Cowburn (2005) and Mann (1999a) and resulting data are summarised in Mann (1999b, p. 122-130). Mann's published norms data are based on a sample of 172 participants from a range of job roles.…”

“…The 172 participants included in Mann's published norms data were employees were from across 12 UK companies with a mix of front-line employees (n=90) and back office employees (n=47) who participated in the Mann (1999a) study and 35 mental health nurses from three UK psychiatric hospitals who participated in the Mann and Cowburn (2005) study. No demographic data are available for the 172 participants represented in the published norms.…”

A study of stress and burnout in nursing students in Hong Kong: A questionnaire survey

“…Nursing is emotionally demanding and this interactive stress contributes to the daily stress of nurses (Mann & Cowburn, 2005).…”

O adoecer pelo trabalho na enfermagem: uma revisão integrativa

“…Em contrapartida, dois estudos selecionados nesta pesquisa (29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35) colocam que programas de terapia complementar não diminuem o estresse dos trabalhadores. (17)(18) colocam que o trabalhador que está submetido ao estresse laboral, o tem reduzido quando tem um suporte de enfrentamento como a presença de um supervisor.…”