Department of Anthropology, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland;
Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being. 2012 Dec 12;7:1-9. doi: 10.3402/qhw.v7i0.19699.
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.
研究集中于在道德复杂的病房（如新生儿重症监护病房[NICU]）工作的专业人员所承受的压力对其造成的破坏性影响。本文探讨了冰岛一家 NICU 的卫生专业人员（包括护士、儿科医生和助理护士）的工作经历。目的是了解在道德敏感病房工作的卫生专业人员如何在如此大的压力下抵消工作的负面影响，以至于他们能够体验到幸福。数据的收集基于民族志实地调查，所采用的方法是参与观察和半结构化访谈。这些专业人员根据幸福的传统定义来评估自己的幸福感。与儿童一起工作以及帮助他人、参与社交关系和体验职业自豪感有助于他们在工作中感到幸福。尽管如此，他们并没有忽视困难的经历，当面对这些经历时，专业人员会对其意义以及工作的目标和优先事项进行协商。与许多定量和基于调查的研究结果不同，这些专业人员赋予了压力建设性的意义，并认为工作中的积极经历缓冲了消极经历。幸福研究将受益于多方面的方法学和理论视角。民族志具有对人类生活中不可预见、有争议、矛盾和模棱两可的方面的开放性，因此可以为幸福研究和工作满意度研究做出贡献。
