ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the results of research into nursing work. 'Emotional labour' is sometimes discussed alongside burnout as a common problematic feature of nursing work. By comparing nursing work with the emotional work expected of a waitress we can perhaps identify some of the key features of nursing work. Some accounts of emotional labour in nursing leave out the part played by capital or rather by a management that sees it as part of its role to 'manage' the emotional displays of its workers to its own benefit. Nurses are ambivalent about initiatives like the six Cs and the Care in Practice project. On the one hand, they support something that restates their own values. On the other they see reorganizations, endless attempts to contain costs and set performance targets as preventing them from acting out those values to their own satisfaction.
