The Emotional Labour of Nursing Revisited

This is an excellent text, timely and much needed in health care today. It was such a pleasure to read a very important contribution to nursing knowledge and I'm sure that so many nurses and health care workers would benefit from reading it. I suggest it should be core reading on all health care programmes, especially nursing.' - Dr D.M. Mazhindu, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Health and Applied Social Science, Liverpool John Moores University, UK "An extremely well presented text which offers a great breadth of discussion, drawn from a robust evidence base. This is a book that I would imagine students and post registered staff referring back to time and time again.' - Brigid Purcell, Senior Lecturer, University of Huddersfield, UK "This book has many [highlights]...but it has an important message to pass on - emotional labour takes its toll...At times it is uncomfortable and difficult reading but thought provoking and necessary...Smith raises some salient points regarding how we teach and support nurses, the importance ward structures and supportive environments play in encouraging our workforce." - Nursing Times

Respected author Pam Smith emphasizes the continued relevance of emotional labour within the modern healthcare context. Revisiting her 1992 findings in light of fresh theoretical perspectives and data drawn from her own new research studies, Smith explores whether care and compassion remain at the heart of contemporary nursing practice.As nurses become responsible for increasingly technical service delivery, has the profession lost its focus on the emotional and human aspects of the role? Do care and compassion remain at the heart of contemporary nursing practice? In this major reworking of a classic text, respected author Pam Smith emphasizes the continued relevance of emotional labour within the modern healthcare context. Revisiting her original findings in light of fresh theoretical perspectives and data drawn from her own new research studies, Smith explores the ways in which the experience of learning nursing and caring is changing in the twenty-first century. A vivid example of the significance of nursing's evidence base, this timely new edition: addresses the most emotionally challenging aspects of the nursing role, including encountering death and dying on the ward; examines the impact of race, age, gender and violence in providing patient centred care; interrogates the importance of the role of practice educators and mentors in practice settings. An inspiring text for the next generation of nurses, The Emotional Labour of Nursing Revisited is an essential read for anyone interested in the contemporary challenges of keeping the whole person at the centre of their practice.