The ward sister and the infrastructure of emotion work: making it visible on the ward

Abstract

In the ‘real world’ of the ward, emotion work was neither formally recognised nor valued as part of nursing. But nurses still engaged in it. What, then, were the conditions that permitted its production and reproduction? My research suggests that the answer lies with the ward sister, who, as the architect of nursing work and organisation, sets the emotional agenda (i.e. the feeling rules) of the ward. When the nurses felt appreciated and supported emotionally by the ward sisters, they not only had a role model for emotionally explicit patient care, but they also felt able to care for patients in this way.