Was Everyone Scared? A Study of the Emotional Labor of Frontline and Non-Frontline Nurses in the COVID–19 Pandemic

The article is devoted to the study of the emotional labor of nurses involved in the pandemic crisis on the front line of the fight against COVID-19 and caring for patients not on the front line of the fight against COVID-19. The experience of nursing labor at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 is characterized by extraordinary, as is the COVID-19 pandemic itself, considered as a historical event that complicated the work of representatives of the health system, regardless of their involvement in the fight against COVID-19. We are faced with the task of finding and describing similarities and differences in the experience of managing emotions, in practices and opportunities for support by nurses safe working conditions in different zones of the hospital space. The choice in favor of analyzing foreign studies was made due to the insufficient representation in Russian-language scientific publications of the labor of non-frontline nurses. Due to the lack of Russian-language research on a given topic, it is difficult to assume what nurses, not only from COVID, but also from non-COVID departments with different resources to maintain safe working conditions, encountered in their work. It will be even more difficult to understand the reasons for the (non)sensitivity of nurses to various forms of inequality in the workplace after the pandemic, after their reunification into the teams of non-COVID departments. In this regard, we consider it advisable to review the empirical experience of English-speaking authors of scientific publications that problematize (not always using sociological approaches) the labor of frontline and non-frontline nurses, demonstrating similar risks arising in their emotional labor and different ways to minimize them. The application of the concept of emotional labor helps us in interpreting the results of interdisciplinary research abroad on the emotional experiences at the nurses of the hospital space. Generalization of foreign experience makes it possible to build a logic for further analysis of similar working conditions for nurses from Russia.