Performance, Emotion Work, and Transition

Abstract

Few researchers have explored the clinical experiences of complementary and alternative medical practitioners and students, including the emotion work they perform. In this article, using a constant comparison approach and a heuristic framework (a dramaturgical perspective), we analyze semistructured interviews with 9 undergraduate practitioners in training to examine challenges experienced when students first attend to patients. A feature of students' learning about clinical work concerned performance in a public arena and associated demands placed on the inchoate practitioner. Preliminary patient consultations represented a dramatic rite of passage and initiation into a transitional phase in professional identity. Juggling the roles of student and practitioner within an observed consultation led to anticipatory anxiety, impression management strategies, and conflict with other individuals. Of the coping strategies, participants regarded sharing and feedback from peer groups as most effective in examining and resolving the challenges of becoming a practitioner.

“I Can Never Be Too Comfortable”: Race, Gender, and Emotion at the Hospital Bedside

“…In addition to the specialized, technical labor required of today’s nurses, they are required to effectively manage their own and others’ (e.g., patients, physicians, aides, coworkers) emotions, so patients and their families retain a sense that calm, confident, and effective care is being provided. As others have shown, however, the expectations surrounding the performance of such emotional labor—or the management of one’s observed emotional displays for pay ( Hochschild, 1983 )—are not equally distributed across all occupational sectors or incumbents ( Fixsen & Ridge, 2012 ; Wingfield, 2010a ). Beginning with Hochschild’s (1983) original study, for example, the performance of emotional labor has been framed as a gendered experience linked to sociocultural stereotypes of women as more emotionally competent and community-oriented ( Ridgeway, 2008 ).…”

‘Momma bear wants to protect’: Vicarious parenting in practitioners working with disturbed and traumatised children

“…Sustained emotional labour has been linked to burnout, a state of chronic stress, exhaustion and emotional disengagement (Schaufeli, Leiter, & Maslach, 2009), considered common among those in mental health services (Morse, Salyers, Rollins, Monroe-DeVita, & Pfahler, 2012). Other writers have, however, argued that particularly in the care professions, professionals may choose to cultivate emotional displays such as compassion and empathy and gain personal satisfaction in the process (Fixsen & Ridge, 2012).…”

“…We used an inductive, qualitative method (Charmaz, 2005) to collect and analyse data from semi-structured interviews with six female professionals working with challenged and neglected children and young people in different capacities. For logistical reasons, the data set was too small to achieve data saturation; however, we used a form of stratified purposive sampling to maximise the diversity of our all-female sample (Fixsen & Ridge, 2012;Lohr & Lohr, 2019).…”

“…We were guided in our analysis by Braun and Clarke's (2006) 6 key stages of TA: familiarising; generating initial codes; searching for themes; reviewing themes; defining and naming themes; and producing a report (Braun & Clarke, 2006). A modified constant comparison approach was also used to allow for the emergence of a deeper understanding and insights into our findings (Fixsen & Ridge, 2012;Strauss & Corbin, 2015). In stage 1, the first researcher listened repeatedly to the audio-recorded interviews before they were transcribed, read and reread the transcripts, and, with the use of colour coding and mapping, gen-…”

The Social Construction of a Concept—Orthorexia Nervosa: Morality Narratives and Psycho-Politics

“…Although the aberrant responses of patients with EDs to treatment have been widely studied ( Faija et al, 2017 ; Musolino et al, 2015 ), the emotional responses of professionals to the disorders they treat are rarely scrutinized in any literature ( Fixsen & Ridge, 2012 ). In a review of treatment resistant features in ED psychopathology, Halmi (2013) writes of an “omnipresent frustration in eating disorders” (p. 1), indicating an uncharacteristic sense of powerlessness on the part of professionals attempting to engage with, or to change the thought patterns and behaviors of, patients or clients with EDs.…”