King's College London

Objective
To explore generalist palliative care providers’ experiences of emotional labour when undertaking conversations around palliative and end-of-life care with patients and families, to inform supportive strategies.

Methods
Semi-structured interviews conducted with generalist staff (those providing ‘primary’ or ‘general’ palliative care, not palliative care specialists) who had attended a communication workshop. Sampling was purposive (by gender, profession, experience). Data were analysed using a framework approach; a sample of transcripts were double-coded for rigour. Data collection and analysis were informed by theories of emotional labour, coping, and communication.

Results
Four ambulance staff, three nurses, two speech and language therapists, and one therapy assistant were interviewed. Five themes emerged: emotions experienced; emotion ‘display rules’; emotion management; support needs; and perceived impact of emotional labour. Participants reported balancing ‘human’ and ‘professional’ expressions of emotion. Support needs included time for emotion management, workplace cultures that normalise emotional experiences, formal emotional support, and palliative and end-of-life care skills training.

Conclusion
Diverse strategies to support the emotional needs of generalist staff are crucial to ensure high-quality end-of-life care and communication, and to support staff well-being.

Practice implications
Both formal and informal support is required, alongside skills training, to enable a supportive workplace culture and individual development.