Abstract
To understand the connections among emotional labor, solidarity, and safety, this study interviewed 19 police officers and 20 nurses. Data analysis with words as the unit of analysis engaged both deductive and inductive processes. This qualitative study demonstrates that, despite numerous differences, both nursing and police have a professional focus on safety. However, while nurses’ safety concerns are first for their patients, police offers’ first concern of safety must be for themselves and their co-workers. Additionally, nurses and police differ in why they perform emotional labor. Nurses engaged in emotional labor in order for their charges to feel closer to them, while police engaged in emotional labor in order to create distance between themselves and the community members they encountered. For both professions, solidarity and teamwork increased nurses’ and police officers’ abilities to engage in the necessary emotional labor, handle challenges, and better succeed in securing safety.
Recommended Citation
Hoffmann, Elizabeth A. and Shinsky, Emily
(2024)
"Emotional Labor, Worker Solidarity, and Safety Concerns Among Police and Nurses,"
Midwest Social Sciences Journal: Vol. 27:
Iss.
1, Article 8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22543/2766-0796.1083
Available at:
https://scholar.valpo.edu/mssj/vol27/iss1/8
