TY - JOUR
T1 - The unspoken work of general practitioner receptionists
T2 - A re-examination of emotion management in primary care
AU - Ward, Jenna
AU - McMurray, Robert
PY - 2011/5
Y1 - 2011/5
N2 - Dealing with illness, recovery and death require health care workers to manage not only their own emotions, but also the emotions of those around them. While there is evidence to suggest that core occupations such as nursing are well versed in the nature of and need for such work, little is known about the requirements for emotion management on the part of front-line administrative staff. In response, findings from a three-year ethnographic study of UK general practice, suggest that as a first-point-of-contact in the English health care system GP receptionists are called upon to perform complex forms of emotion management pursuant to facilitating efficacious care. Two new emotion management techniques are identified: (1) emotional neutrality, and (2) emotion switching, indicating a need to extend emotion management research beyond core health occupations, while at the same time reconsidering the variety and complexity of the techniques used by ancillary workers.
AB - Dealing with illness, recovery and death require health care workers to manage not only their own emotions, but also the emotions of those around them. While there is evidence to suggest that core occupations such as nursing are well versed in the nature of and need for such work, little is known about the requirements for emotion management on the part of front-line administrative staff. In response, findings from a three-year ethnographic study of UK general practice, suggest that as a first-point-of-contact in the English health care system GP receptionists are called upon to perform complex forms of emotion management pursuant to facilitating efficacious care. Two new emotion management techniques are identified: (1) emotional neutrality, and (2) emotion switching, indicating a need to extend emotion management research beyond core health occupations, while at the same time reconsidering the variety and complexity of the techniques used by ancillary workers.
KW - Care
KW - Emotion
KW - Emotion management
KW - Emotion switching
KW - Emotional neutrality
KW - English NHS
KW - General practice
KW - GP receptionists
KW - UK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79955971314&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.019
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.019
M3 - Article
C2 - 21501912
AN - SCOPUS:79955971314
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 72
SP - 1583
EP - 1587
JO - Social science and medicine
JF - Social science and medicine
IS - 10
ER -