ABSTRACT
In general nursing, clinical nursing skills and competencies linked to the biomedical model are essential to nursing practice. This is particularly the case in surgical nursing where patients come into hospital to have invasive physiological procedures. Surgery is a direct action that sets out to correct problems in the body by cutting, bypassing, removing or replacing. These actions interfere with normal bodily functions and nursing care is aimed at preparing the patient prior to theatre and facilitating the body’s healing and reparation processes afterwards. The nurse’s knowledge of anatomy and physiology of the healthy body, the impact of surgery on the body, and the clinical skills involved in supporting the body’s normal functions and dealing with complications arising as a result of surgery are fundamental to the care given. This is the case for all surgical procedures. However, not all patients are fit and healthy prior to theatre. They may come in with existing known or unknown conditions. The nurse also needs to be knowledgeable about the impact of different illnesses on the body and how the treatments given work. For example, a patient may come in to have an amputation of a limb due to complications of diabetes. The nurse must also manage the patient’s diabetes, which will be affected as a result of the surgery. While the clinical procedures related to surgery (or indeed other forms of nursing) may be routine to the nurse, for the patient they can appear formidable, provoking anxiety at a time when they might already be enduring a great deal of pain and stress. Instrumental emotional labour is an aspect of emotional labour that supports the clinical and medical knowledge base of nursing practice in the execution of clinical skills. This chapter examines the instrumental character of emotional labour in nursing.
