The Social Context of Caregiving Work in Health Care: Pushing Conceptual and Methodological Frontiers

Abstract

As the demands and nature of caregiving work in the health-care sector become more varied and challenging, our research and theories need to match this evolving reality. This editorial introduces theories of caregiving work and then uses each of the four papers featured in the special issue to advance a more nuanced and social approach to theorizing and studying the emotional experience of caregiving work. The articles and editorial explore the implications of whole person organizational and social supports, (un)shared social location between caregivers and patients, the complexity and consequences of emotional experience, and novel measurement and analytic tools to study them.