UNLIMITED LIABILITY - EMOTIONAL LABOR IN NURSING AND SOCIAL-WORK

At the heart of the ''new nursing'' is an emphasis on developing a clo se, holistic relationship between nurse and patient. Through this not only will healing be facilitated, and patients be encouraged to take r esponsibility for their own health, but the nurse will be placed firml y at the centre of the network of health professionals. Individual pra ctitioners and the profession as a whole will achieve a clearer and mo re satisfying mission. This casting of the nurse as pivotal enabler pa rallels attempts to systematize social work theory and practice in the 1970s, and many common intellectual sources on relationship-building are used. But what are the supposed characteristics of the 'good relat ionship'? The paper argues that, while the new nursing endeavours to e mphasize the social context of patients, health and illness, much of t he psychotherapeutic literature called in support is essentialist: the social world is treated as a hindrance to the goal of 'authenticity'. Thus acquired professional knowledge and skills are devalued. Added t o the potential of this for personal stress are risks for the professi on itself. In circumstances of permanent financial pressure, foregroun ding hard-to-measure criteria of success, like the quality of relation ships, is very hazardous.