{"title":"Repairing with a warm heart: How medical practitioners cultivate affective relationships with clients","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117449","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Healthcare providers are often advised to manage emotions to adhere to professional feeling rules and avoid deep affection for clients, but there are situations where this would not apply. We offer an atypical case of a cleft lip and palate (CLP) treatment program where affectionate medical provider-patient relationships are encouraged. Participant observation in a CLP department, in-depth interviews with the medical team, and public online content from the official WeChat account of the department showed that a meaningful bond was formed through a contextual concordance of moral consideration and professionalism across the organization. Medical practitioners have developed and justified such emotional work at the individual, professional, and organizational levels through three concordant micro-processes: developing the moral deservingness of the patient, instilling moral fulfillment into professionalism, and establishing moral consensus among medical professionals. This study enhances our current understanding of emotional work in healthcare by recognizing the moral consideration of patients and its influence on medical practices and by highlighting the complexities and dynamics of different feeling rules.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Science & Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953624009031","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Healthcare providers are often advised to manage emotions to adhere to professional feeling rules and avoid deep affection for clients, but there are situations where this would not apply. We offer an atypical case of a cleft lip and palate (CLP) treatment program where affectionate medical provider-patient relationships are encouraged. Participant observation in a CLP department, in-depth interviews with the medical team, and public online content from the official WeChat account of the department showed that a meaningful bond was formed through a contextual concordance of moral consideration and professionalism across the organization. Medical practitioners have developed and justified such emotional work at the individual, professional, and organizational levels through three concordant micro-processes: developing the moral deservingness of the patient, instilling moral fulfillment into professionalism, and establishing moral consensus among medical professionals. This study enhances our current understanding of emotional work in healthcare by recognizing the moral consideration of patients and its influence on medical practices and by highlighting the complexities and dynamics of different feeling rules.
期刊介绍:
Social Science & Medicine provides an international and interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of social science research on health. We publish original research articles (both empirical and theoretical), reviews, position papers and commentaries on health issues, to inform current research, policy and practice in all areas of common interest to social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers. The journal publishes material relevant to any aspect of health from a wide range of social science disciplines (anthropology, economics, epidemiology, geography, policy, psychology, and sociology), and material relevant to the social sciences from any of the professions concerned with physical and mental health, health care, clinical practice, and health policy and organization. We encourage material which is of general interest to an international readership.