PAM SMITH is Professor of Clinical Practice, European Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford. Her previous publications include Research Mindedness for Practice (1997) and Nursing Research: Setting New Agendas (1998). She has also been working with Steve Smith at Brunel University and Mike Rustin at University of East London to set up and run two annual events on Emotional Labour: a winter workshop at the Tavistock centre, London and an Annual Conference at South Bank University. these events were a follow up to a special edition of Soundings (a journal of politics and culture) on Emotional Labour in the Spring of 1999.

• IntroductionPutting their toe in the water: collecting, testing and expecting nurses to careNothing is really said about care: defining nursing knowledgeYou learn from what's wrong with the patient: defining nursing workThe ward sister and the infrastructure of emotion work: making it visible on the wardDeath and dying hospital: the ultimate emotional labourThe caring trajectory: caring styles and capacity over timeConclusionsMethodological appendixAppendicesNotesReferencesIndex.