Development and validation of an emotional labour scale for nurses

Purpose: This study aimed to develop an instrument to measure nurses’ emotional labour and to examine the scale's validity and reliability. Background: Nurses experience emotional labour when they interact with patients. In previous research, nurses' emotional labour was measured using tools developed for other occupations, which made it difficult to clarify the attributes specific to nursing. Methods: Preliminary items were developed through a literature review, interviews and constructing a conceptual framework. The confirmed 25 items were applied in data collection. Data collected from 304 nurses working at metropolitan area hospitals were utilized to test the preliminary tool's validity and reliability. For this purpose, item analysis, factor analysis, Pearson correlation coefficients and Cronbach's alpha were used. Results: The final scale comprised 16 items, divided and three factors. The factors comprised “emotional control effort in profession,” “patient-focused emotional suppression,” and “emotional pretense by norms.” The explanatory variance of the three factors was 52.1%. Cronbach's α was 0.81, and the split-half coefficient was 0.84. Conclusions: Results indicate that the proposed scale was valid and reliable, and suitable for assessing nurses’ emotional labour. Implications for nursing management: The scale could contribute to devising an efficient strategy to manage nurses’ emotional labour.