title: Strategies of emotion management: not just on, but off the job.
abstract: Intensive care nurses, like professionals in other intense occupations characterized by high degrees of uncertainty, manage the emotions that result from their work both on and off the job. We focus on the job strategies - calling-in, sharing their experiences with others and engaging in a range of activities oriented to emotional recovery - that 37 intensive care nurses use to manage their emotions off the job. These strategies show how the social organization and division of labor in intensive care units influences nurses' emotional management outside of them and how organizational troubles for hospitals becomes personal ones for staff. They further support theoretical approaches that view emotions as dynamic elements belonging to individuals rather than aspects of people that can be fully appropriated by organizations.
authors.affiliation: Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hammonds
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cadge
mesh_terms: D064648:Critical Care Nursing; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal; D015399:Nursing Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D012944:Social Support
keywords: critical care; emotion management; emotional labor; emotions; intensive care unit; nurses; nursing practice