‘On the inside I’m grossed out and wanting to puke’: Exploring professional facework and emotional labour as impression management tools in rural emergency medical services

Abstract

In the foothills of rural Appalachia, situations arise where emergency medical services (EMS) providers—such as paramedics and emergency medical technicians—must reflect professionalism in their ‘face’. However, as EMS providers practice facework in their organizational roles, it is important to consider how they manage professionalism when emotional labour and dirty work are required, such as when supporting patients from underserved rural communities. Guided by 181 hours of participant observation with 23 interviews with EMS providers from two county-wide EMS organizations, this organizational ethnography reveals the value of impression management strategies in the form of emotional labour. Notably, such practices aid in EMS providers’ maintenance of professional face as they encounter face threats on the job. In such moments, EMS providers utilize emotional labour in their corrective and preventive facework. Importantly, this research makes a meaningful theoretical and practical contribution to organizational communication by illustrating the value of impression management, emotional labour, and facework that aid in the management of professionalism.