Continuities in caring? Emotion work in a NHS Direct call centre

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Organizational Psychology
• Sociology

Background:

• Societal technological and economic shifts alter professional-client relationships, reframing patients as users and customers.
• This context fuels interest in emotional labor and emotion work, particularly within nursing.
• Nursing's core involves caring, distinguishing it through its emotional labor component.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine emotion work among nurses in a National Health Service Direct call centre.
• To explore the social processes shaping emotion events in this specific technological context.
• To understand how nurses perceive and manage emotion work in remote care settings.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study exploring nurses' experiences and emotion work.
• Focus on nurses in a UK National Health Service Direct call centre.
• Utilizing theoretical perspectives from organizational psychology and sociology.

Main Results:

• Caring without face-to-face contact via communication technology significantly shapes nurses' work perception.
• Nurses' work orientation is influenced by technological mediation.
• Conflict and dissonance arise from caller and manager expectations, impacting nurses' emotion work.

Conclusions:

• Remote care delivery presents unique challenges for nurses' emotion work.
• Technological communication impacts the emotional landscape of nursing practice.
• Understanding these dynamics is crucial for supporting nurses in call centre environments.