Happiness in the neonatal intensive care unit: Merits of ethnographic fieldwork

Abstract

Research has focused on the destructive effects of distress on professionals who work in ethically complex wards such as neonatal intensive units (NICUs). This article examines the accounts of health professionals, including nurses, pediatricians and assistant nurses, of their work at a NICU in Iceland. The aim is to understand how health professionals, who work under stressful conditions in an ethically sensitive ward, can counteract the negative sides of work too such a degree that they experience happiness. The collection of data was based on the ethnographic fieldwork, and the methods used were participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The professionals evaluated their wellbeing in line with conventional definitions of happiness. Working with children and opportunities to help others, engage in social relations and experience professional pride contributed to their happiness at work. Nonetheless, they did not dismiss the difficult experiences, and when confronted with these the professionals negotiated their meanings and the goals and priorities of work. In contrast to the findings of much quantitative and survey-based research, the professionals attributed constructive meanings to stress and argued that the positive experiences at work buffered the negative ones. Research on happiness would benefit from multifaceted methodological and theoretical perspectives. Thanks to its openness to the unforeseen, controversial, contradictory, and ambiguous aspects of human life, ethnography can contribute to happiness research and research on job satisfaction.

• ethnography
• neonatal intensive care
• happiness
• stress
• health professionals

Acknowledgements

The Research Council of Iceland (RANNIS) funded the research upon which this article is based. The Center for Child Health Services in Reykjavík and the Institute of Anthropology, University of Iceland, were guest institutions for the research project. Parents and professionals who participated in the study are gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

1. Daily Icelandic language makes no distinction between infants and children. Therefore, the word “children” is used in some of the direct citations even when the children in question are newborns.