Spanish oncology nurses: Assessment and relationship between resilience and emotional labour status

To investigate nurses' resilience and emotional labour (EL) status in the oncology context as well as to examine the relationship between resilience and EL status.

Cross-sectional, correlational quantitative design. The selected setting is the oncology centre at a referral and teaching hospital in northern Spain. One hundred and two oncology nurses were included. Socio-demographic data were obtained from a questionnaire. Data for resilience and EL status were drawn from validated Spanish questionnaires.

Oncology nurses reported a moderate to high level of resilience and experienced less intense EL. Professional rank was the only factor identified that influenced resilience (p < .05). Gender, educational level, shift work, work department, and oncology work experience were statistically significant when correlated with the EL of oncology nurses (p < .05). There was a positive correlation between resilience and two EL factors (p < .05).

The information gained from this study may raise awareness of the importance of resilience and EL in the nursing profession. It would be important to develop a programme of resilience training and emotional regulation and integrate these programmes into educational systems in order to help enhance nursing students' and clinical nurses' resilience and emotional competency.