{"id":268,"date":"2026-03-17T10:41:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/?p=268"},"modified":"2026-03-17T10:41:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:41:38","slug":"performing-behind-the-screen-student-nurses-experiences-of-emotional-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/performing-behind-the-screen-student-nurses-experiences-of-emotional-labour\/","title":{"rendered":"Performing Behind the Screen: Student Nurses\u2019 Experiences of Emotional Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Background<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">This scholarship project uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the experiences of emotional labour among undergraduate student nurses\u00a0participating\u00a0in synchronous online tutorials. The project is theoretically informed by Hochschild\u2019s (1983) conceptualisation of emotional labour and is situated within a Communities of Practice (CoP) framework (Lave and Wenger, 1991). The concept of CoP informed the design of this project as the synchronous online learning sessions that participants are\u00a0interviewed\u00a0about\u00a0within the project,\u00a0employ CoP as a\u00a0main\u00a0pedagogical approach.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Hochschild (1983) coined the term\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">emotional labour,<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0which she defined as \u201cthe management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display\u2026\u201d. Emotional labour has been widely examined within the nursing profession, where managing emotions is recognised as an integral\u00a0part\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0work (Gray, 2008; Henderson, 2001). Within nurse education, research has explored emotional labour experienced by student nurses during clinical placements (Santo et al., 2019).\u00a0But\u00a0\u00a0there\u00a0has been limited exploration of emotional labour within the theoretical components of nurse education.\u00a0There\u00a0remains\u00a0a gap in understanding how emotional labour is experienced by student nurses in synchronous online learning spaces\u00a0and\u00a0within a\u00a0digital\u00a0CoP.\u00a0Exploring this\u00a0provides insight into how students navigate emotional\u00a0labour\u00a0within digital learning environments and how this\u00a0impacts\u00a0their engagement and learning experiences.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Method<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Adopting an interpretivist approach, the study uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore how students experience and make sense of emotional labour within online learning environments. Semi-structured online interviews are conducted with final-year undergraduate nursing students who have regularly\u00a0participated\u00a0in synchronous online teaching sessions as part of a CoP within their nursing programme. IPA is chosen\u00a0as\u00a0a methodology\u00a0because it focuses not only on exploring lived experience but also on how individuals interpret and make sense of those experiences, which is central to this project\u2019s focus.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Results<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The study explores how\u00a0aspects of emotional labour such as\u00a0emotional regulation, perceived expectations of participation, and discussions of emotionally sensitive clinical topics\u00a0is\u00a0experienced by students in online tutorials. These findings contribute to discussions about how emotional\u00a0labour is\u00a0impacted\u00a0by digital learning and\u00a0the\u00a0implications for educators\u00a0seeking\u00a0to design psychologically safe and supportive online learning environments in nursing education and wider digital\u00a0CoP.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Conclusion<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">This study explores emotional labour within digital synchronous learning in undergraduate nursing education. It examines how student nurses experience and\u00a0manage\u00a0emotional labour during online tutorials.\u00a0The findings contribute to understanding the emotional\u00a0aspects\u00a0of digital learning and inform the development of psychologically safe and supportive online teaching practices in nursing education and wider digital\u00a0CoP.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Background\u00a0 This scholarship project uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the experiences of emotional labour among undergraduate student nurses\u00a0participating\u00a0in synchronous online tutorials. The project is theoretically informed by Hochschild\u2019s (1983) conceptualisation of emotional labour and is situated within a Communities of Practice (CoP) framework (Lave and Wenger, 1991). The concept of CoP informed the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[150,151,146,147,148,149],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-digital-communities-of-practice","tag-digital-learning-environments","tag-emotional-labour","tag-online-nursing-education","tag-student-nurses","tag-synchronous-online-learning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}