Managing stress and protecting emotional wellbeing

This paper has been written by two Diagnostic Radiographers, who have progressed beyond working in the clinical practice environment to leadership and management roles within their organisations. Ruth Strudwick is a Professor in Diagnostic Radiography and Head of Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) at a university and Shona Evans is a Transformation Lead at an integrated care board. Their shared background of diagnostic radiography informs their current job roles and provides experience and transferable skills that can be seen to assist in leading and managing teams. As friends and former colleagues, the authors meet up on a regular basis and often discuss how they feel, sharing the emotional labour that comes with their current job roles.

Emotional labour is precisely defined by Hochschild¹as "the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display [that is] sold for a wage". In 1983,...