Is controlling your emotions a sign of professionalism? This question torments many caregivers and students, because they wonder at the same time how to treat humanely without feeling. This book focuses on the emotional work of nurses, nurses’ aides and students, because they are the ones who interact and exchange most closely with patients.
The authors study the stakes of the expression of emotions at the heart of care. Not a day goes by without the involvement of an affective reaction in the relationship with the patient, his entourage or within the teams. Exhausted professionals may seem indifferent but, more often than not, it is strong emotions that punctuate daily life, those of patients or families as well as those of caregivers, with outbursts of anger, moments of joy, pride, or even tears, fear. The healing scene is as full of overt or poorly controlled emotions as everyday life is. But many know that, in the context of work, overflow can lead to exhaustion and that the expression of one’s feelings in a group in particular allows one to continue. To further shed light on the experience of emotions, interviews were conducted with students and young nurses. They bear witness to striking situations, to what they experience in contact with patients.
The relationship with others is one of the main reasons for engaging in the care professions. Such relational work goes hand in hand with emotional work. This book aims to contribute to taking better account, in training institutes and services, of emotions, which are one of the major specificities of work that is first and foremost human.
