More than just a task: intimate care delivery in the nursing home.

: Intimate care procedures, such as bathing and toileting, are often regarded as simple, humble tasks. However, the provision of such care transforms a very private, personal activity into a social process. U this complex process and the psychological impact it has on those providing and receiving care is critical in order to mitigate potential distress.

Caring about dying persons and their families: Interpretation, practice and emotional labour.

The importance of emotional support for dying persons and their families has been well established, yet we know less about how care workers understand emotional processes related to death and dying, or how these understandings are connected to care practices and emotional labour at the end of life. The aim of this study was to explore how healthcare workers interpret and respond to emotional needs of dying persons and their families. Qualitative data were collected between 2013 and 2014 through in-depth, in-person interviews with 14 nurses and 12 healthcare aides in one Western Canadian city.

The Emotional Labor of Personal Grief in Palliative Care: Balancing Caring and Professional Identities.

The paid provision of care for dying persons and their families blends commodified emotion work and attachments to two often-conflicting role identities: the caring person and the professional. We explore how health care employees interpret personal grief related to patient death, drawing on interviews with 12 health care aides and 13 nurses. Data were analyzed collaboratively using an interpretively embedded thematic coding approach and constant comparison.