Compassion fatigue, emotional labor, and emotional display among hospice nurses

Work Environment Characteristics and Emotional Intelligence as Correlates of Nurses’ Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study

“…In the current study, while all proposed relationships between variables were corroborated, two subscales of emotional intelligence were not significantly related to compassion fatigue: perception of emotions, which describes the extent to which an individual can perceive, appraise, and express emotions; and utilization of emotions, which refers to the extent to which people report being able to utilize emotions in problem-solving and decision making [ 45 , 61 ]. We argue that it may not be the perception and utilization of emotion that lead to compassion fatigue, but rather incongruence between experienced emotions and outward displays of emotion [ 62 ]. When there is a mismatch between actual feelings and displayed emotions, nurses could become indifferent to their job and less empathic in their interactions with patients [ 63 , 64 ].…”

“…To provide compassionate care to patients despite the emotions they are experiencing, or lack thereof, nurses are expected to display a caring and empathetic demeanor toward their patients, and to either change or suppress their actual feelings to show the expected emotions [ 41 ]. However, this inauthentic emotional labor may create emotional dissonance, thereby further increasing compassion fatigue [ 62 , 65 ]. On the contrary, when nurses display naturally and genuinely felt emotions, an intentional effort to feel certain emotions is not required before expression, which promotes emotional compatibility [ 66 , 67 ] and could consequently foster compassion satisfaction.…”

“…To better understand these emotional phenomena, future research efforts could aim to replicate the current study by extending beyond emotional intelligence and focusing on the impact of emotional display through deep or surface acting [ 62 ]. Surface acting involves regulation of emotional expression and suppression of one’s felt emotions, whereas deep acting involves attempting to change one’s felt emotions to meet the role demands [ 63 ].…”

Compassion fatigue, watching patients suffering and emotional display rules among hospice professionals: a daily diary study

“…Recently, the World Health Organization emphasized the need for improving the quality of life of patients and relatives facing the problem of life-threatening illness by addressing their physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs [2][3][4]. In this sense, hospice care professionals (HCPs) provide intensive interventions aimed at improving quality of life and relieving suffering [5,6].…”

“…Among those stressors that may affect staff emotional work, limiting HCPs true emotions as health care workers, witnessing the extreme suffering of patients represents an intense challenge for HCPs in terms of emotional management, ethical obligations and personal integrity as individuals and professionals [15][16][17]. Working in hospice context entails daily recurrent and intense interactions with patients and families that require regular use of emotional labor regulation strategies which may lead to reduced well-being [5,16,17]. Emotional labor has been defined as the effort involved when workers "regulate their emotional display in an attempt to meet organizationally-based expectations specific to their roles" (p. 365) [16].…”