[The emotional labor of nursing: critical incidents and coping strategies].

INTRODUCTION: Despite the suggestion to adopt a balanced approach between detachment and involvement, the nurse-patient relationship is always embedded with emotional conflicts.

AIMS: To collect data on how nurses manage the emotional support to patients.

METHOD: The study adopted the theoretical perspective of the emotional work. Fifty-three nurses completed a questionnaire investigating everyday "emotional accidents." The data were analyzed considering the strategies employed to address and resolve them.

RESULTS: All nurses exert an emotional work to try to outcome the dissonance between subjective emotions and emotional rules required by the professional role. There are three strategies: normalizing, regressive, transformative. Most of the emotional efforts are aimed at showing emotions in accordance with the role, even if they are dissonant with respect to the subjective feelings (surface acting).

CONCLUSIONS: Nurses are expected to practice an "emotional neutrality", but their profession continually exposes them to a heavy emotional work that may be at the basis of emotional exhaustion and burnout. Strategies should be adopted to prevent stress and health damages.