Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Nurse Education Today journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nedt Is spirituality an important variable as the predictor of emotional labour for nursing students? Altun Baksi a , Hamdiye Arda Sürücü b, ⁎ ,1 a Süleyman Demirel University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Nursing Department, Çünür/Isparta, 32200 Turkey b Ataturk School of Health, Dicle University, Diyarbakır, Turkey ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Emotional labour Spirituality Nursing student Nursing education ABSTRACT In the present study, the purpose was to examine nursing students' spirituality and their sociodemographic and professional characteristics as the predictor of emotional labour. In the study, the descriptive cross-sectional and relational research design was used. The study was carried out with 167 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade students from the School of Health at a state university located in Southeast of Turkey. For the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics, correlations and stepwise multilinear regression analysis were used. The results revealed that spiri- tuality (β = 0.198), the average academic achievement score ranging between 80 and 100 (β = 0.152), per- ception of the school atmosphere to be “poor” (β = -0.367) and “average” (β = -0.269, p = .048) and a) increasing one's motivation by doing his or her job (Yes) (β = 0.154) and c) being in a peaceful environment (Yes) (β = 0.188) for psychological relaxation were found to be important predictors for the sub-dimension of in- depth behaviours of the nurses (p < .05). For the sub-dimension of superficial behaviour, perception of the school atmosphere to be “poor” (β = -0.204) was a statistically significant predictor (p < .05). As for the intimate behaviour, spirituality (β = 0.254), c) being in a peaceful environment (Yes) for psychological re- laxation (β = 0.241) and gender (being female) (β = 0.230) were statistically significant predictors (p < .05). In order for nursing instructors and nurses to manage the nursing students' emotional labour process well, an appropriate educational and clinic environment should be established. Also, strategies considering nursing students' spiritual values and development should be developed. 1. Introduction Emotional labour refers to the action of managing emotions and emotional expressions to become consistent with organizational “rules” defined as emotions which are necessary in organizational respect in the process of interpersonal relationships (Hochschild, 1983; Mikolajczak et al., 2007). According to another definition of emotional labour, it is the effort to understand others, to show empathy towards others and to feel others' emotions as if they were their own emotions (Basım and Beğenirbaş, 2012). Today, “Emotional Labour” is an im- portant component of a wide variety of professions and fields of service (Cheng et al., 2013; Yucebalkan and Karasakal, 2016). These profes- sions especially include doctors, nurses, teachers, airline staff, social service experts, call centre staff and sales representatives (Hochschild, 1983; Bayram et al., 2012). Nurses are in constant and intensive contact with patients/healthy individuals and their relatives. Nurses are expected to decrease not only their own emotional reactions but also the anxieties and stresses of patients and of their relatives (Kinman and Leggetter, 2016). The emotional labour process in a clinic environment is difficult for nurses, yet it is more difficult for nursing students be- cause they have too little professional experience as well as because they may have to spend more energy for that purpose (Kinman and Leggetter, 2016; Christiansen and Jensen, 2008; Msiska et al., 2014). In literature, the concept of emotional labour is examined in three dimensions: superficial behaviours, in-depth behaviours and intimate behaviours (Hochschild, 1983; Ashforth and Humphrey, 1993). In su- perficial behaviour, individuals adapt their behaviours to the organi- zational goals without changing their real emotions. Workers demon- strating an in-depth behaviour make efforts to feel their emotions in the way required by their job. As for intimate behaviour, there is no dif- ference between individuals' self-emotions and the emotions required by their job (Hochschild, 1983; Grandey, 2000; Ashforth and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2019.05.025 Received 28 February 2019; Accepted 13 May 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: hamdiye.arda@dicle.edu.tr (H. Arda Sürücü). 1 Office address: Ataturk School of Health, Dicle University, Diyarbakır, Turkey. Fen Fakültesi arkası Eski Edebiyat Fakültesi Binası, Kat:2, Kampüs, Sur, 21100, Diyarbakır, Turkey. Nurse Education Today 79 (2019) 135–141 0260-6917/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T