Valuing the unseen emotional labour of nursing

This paper argues that comforting, listening, being reassuring and showing sympathy are important nursing skills that are vital to a patients' well-being and, as such, should be both valued and remunerated. The author also argues that the invisibility of these skills has been compounded by the NHS and Community Care Act 1990. This has meant that long-term care is being transferred into the hands of the private and voluntary sectors and informal carers. As an alternative to residential care, many social services departments now use the home care services of not-for-profit care agencies who employ 'ordinary' people to enable those needing long-term care to remain in their own home. Such workers are often paid in a way that does not remunerate the emotional element of their labour.