Collegial surface acting emotional labour, burnout and intention to leave in novice and pre-retirement nurses in the United Kingdom: A cross-sectional study.

Aim: To investigate the relationship between surface and deep acting in nurses' patient-focused and collegial emotional labour, with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment and intention to leave.

Design: A cross-sectional descriptive study using the Emotional Labour Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory and intention to leave Yes/No questions with 118 Registered Nurses to measure patient-focused and collegial emotional labour, burnout and intention to leave.

Results: Surface acting in patient-focused and collegial emotional labour was found to have positive associations with burnout and intention to leave their current job. Only surface acting in patient-focused emotional labour was positively associated with intention to leave the organization and/or the profession. The novice nurses carried out more deep acting collegial emotional labour than the pre-retirement nurses.

Conclusions: Collegial emotional labour is significant to nurses' intention to leave their current job but not their intention to leave the organization and/or the profession.