Relationship between Emotional Labor and Job Stress Response among Hospital Nurses in Japan

[Purpose] Emotional labor is defined as intentional control feelings, and it is necessary for human service professionals such as medical care, welfare and education. Strong anxiety or anger of subjects may induce emotional exhaustion in workers. In this cross-sectional study, the relationship between five factors of emotional labor and job stress responses among Japanese hospital nurses was investigated. [Methods] Self-related questionnaire survey was conducted among 147 nurses of five hospitals in Japan. Effective response rate was 83.7%. Emotional labor was assessed by the Emotional Labor Inventory for Nurses (ELINE), which evaluated five factors of the emotional labor. Job stress was assessed by the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BSQ), which evaluated 18 factors of job stress. Peason's correlation coefficient was used to analysis the relationship between emotional labor and job stress response. Multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate the influence of emotional labor and some job stressors on job stress responses. [Ethical conditions] Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Nursing Ethical Committee of Hiroshima International University, Hiroshima, Japan. [Results] Three factors of emotional labor were significantly correlated with negative stress responses of “fatigue”, “depression”, “anxiety”, and “some somatic stress responses”. Two factors of emotional labor were significantly correlated with “worthwhileness”. [Discussion] Most of the emotional labor was related to various negative stress responses. It was suggested that assessing emotional labor might be necessary for stress management in nurses. On the other hand, the emotional labor, especially “exploring and understanding” was closely related to job worthwhileness.