Emotional labour has become an important part of many professions, where employees need to control their emotions to provide a high-quality service. One of these professions is nursing, where emotional labour is an indispensable and integral part of nurses' daily duties. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate how nurses experience emotional labour and how emotional labour affects their family life. The master thesis is divided into two parts. In the initial theoretical section, key terms, concepts, and the theoretical framework essential for comprehending the topic are introduced, grounded in the analysis of secondary sources. The second, empirical section focuses on presenting and interpreting the findings from a qualitative study, which involved conducting ten semi-structured interviews with nurses. The findings revealed that nurses experience deep personal and professional satisfaction when providing compassionate and empathetic care. Although they strive to separate emotions, emotional strains and workplace stress from family dynamics, many nurses described instances where workplace stress spilled over into family life and affected their family relationships. Despite recognizing these conflicts, they feel that emotional labour does not have serious long-term consequences on their family life. Nurses do not perceive their work as burdensome, instead they express a deep sense of satisfaction and commitment to their profession.
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