Strengthening mental health nurses' (MHNs) resilience may help mitigate the negative effects of the emotional labour (EL) of their work. There is no prior evidence on MHNs' experiences of resilience in the context of EL. This interpretive qualitative study sought to explore how MHNs build and maintain their resilience in the face of high levels of EL. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 11 MHNs. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Four main themes were constructed. The first three; Being attuned to self and others, Having a positive mindset grounded in purpose, and Maintaining psychological equilibrium through proactive self‐care, describe how MHNs build and maintain their resilience. The fourth theme, Running on emotionally empty, describes what impedes MHNs' resilience. MHNs engaged in internal self‐regulatory processes to manage their mental and emotional state. They maintained intra‐ and inter‐personal boundaries and proactively used self‐care strategies to maintain their well‐being. Through this, they were able to replenish and sustain the energy required to maintain a state of equilibrium between themselves, their interpersonal practice, and their working environment, and to positively adapt to EL. However, lack of organizational support and high workplace demands can negatively impact MHNs' equilibrium and adaptive ability. There is a need for organizations to proactively work to reduce workplace stressors, and support MHNs' professional well‐being and practice. Education and support strategies focused on strengthening MHNs' resilience, well‐being, and mental health practice capabilities, including the provision of clinical supervision, and clear role expectations within MHNs' scope of practice are recommended.

This paper reports on the findings of a study that considered how anxiety might function to organise nurses' practice. With reference to psychoanalytic theory this paper analyses field notes taken during a series of nursing change-of-shift handovers. The handover practices analysed met all the criteria for a ritual, as understood in psychoanalytic theory, and functioned to alleviate anxiety in the short term while symbolically expressing a forbidden and unknown knowledge. We argue that the handover ritual contained certain prohibitions, yet allowed some expression of the prohibited knowledge in a disguised way. The prohibition concerned how the patient affected the nurse, that is, moved the nurse to love and hate the patient. We argue that this prohibition is expressed, in disguise, via the displacement of affection for the patient onto other nurses and through negative stereotyping of some patients. We also argue that these prohibitions of the handover mirror broader prohibitions within nursing, and thus the rituals of the handover become an expression of how professional prohibitions are enacted in practice. We conclude that the important implicit function of the handover ritual is to keep anxiety at bay, thereby enabling the nurse to commence practice rather than being immobilised by the effect of potentially overwhelming anxiety.

The therapeutic relationship has been considered foundational to psychiatric nursing practice since at least the mid-20th century. However, this does not, in itself, guarantee either its continuity or relevance to current practice. Concepts such as the therapeutic relationship require sustained attention, both in theory and in practice, to illustrate ongoing relevance to the discipline. This paper addresses the therapeutic relationship in psychiatric nursing via aspects of psychoanalytic theory, particularly the notion of transference, as theorized by both Freud and Lacan. Two case fragments provide practice material, through which transference in the nurse-patient relationship is explored. The nurse, in the context of his/her relationship with the patient, a sick stranger, offers both a listening and the potential development of transference. This transference can be experienced, in part, as a form of attachment to the nurse, one that is not regarded pejoratively as dependency. There is the potential, within the nurse-patient relationship, for a psychical holding to develop, one from within which both the patient can speak and transference might arise. It is argued that listening to the patient has the potential to assist the patient and, with the development of transference, can provide the context for important work.

It is well established that nursing practice produces considerable anxiety, and it can also give rise to envy and jealousy. While envy in nursing was identified in the literature more than 50 years ago, there remains a paucity of articles addressing either envy or jealousy for nurses. In a recent research study on current experiences of clinical practice, we analysed a fragment of nurses' speech via Klein's theory of jealousy. The results revealed that the nurses expressed jealousy at the privilege afforded to doctors. We argue that it is important to acknowledge jealousy in nursing practice because it has the potential for 'spoiling' effective care delivery and as such, can have detrimental ramifications in the health system. Also, jealousy may keep the nurse from fully focusing on their nursing practice in that it divides the nurse's attention and so limits the nurse's treatment of the patient. Nurses' jealousy of doctors is a taboo topic in nursing, and yet it warrants serious consideration due to the potential deleterious consequences that can arise when this dynamic is present.

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