I pulled into the driveway and shut off the car. Exhausted, I walked into the house where I immediately stripped out of my soiled scrubs and jumped into the shower. As if trying to wash the day’s events down the shower drain, I scrubbed my body and slowly rinsed off the soap. I slipped into my comfy sweatpants and oversized t-shirt and climbed into bed next to my then husband who groggily asked, “How was your day?” I could have told him about the long day. About the hours of adrenaline pumping through my veins as our team tried to save a patient’s life and the final feeling of disappointment as the patient expired despite our many efforts. But instead I simply answered, “It was okay honey, goodnight.” The purpose of this essay is to discuss the article "Strategies of Emotion Management" while debating over the positives and negatives of stress-inducing events nurses face, and finally the limits of the qualitative approach this article utilizes. …show more content…
It was found that the nurses dealt with their emotions on and off the job in separate ways. Some allowed themselves to call into the unit on their days off to check on patients they became connected with so they could successfully deal with the lingering emotions from working on the stressful unit. In contrast, other ICU nurses completely remove themselves emotionally from their patients when off the job using emotional detachment to manage the stress. More alike, all the nurses found it either helpful to talk about their emotions to other nurses or to participate in activities such as watching TV or exercising as utilized ways to escape emotional strains (Hammonds & Cadge,