New development: A ‘journey of personal and professional emotions’- emergency ambulance professionals during COVID-19

Emotional labour refers to managing one’s own emotions as required by each profession’s requirement. Street-level bureaucrats such as nurses, social workers, medical doctors routinely deal with emotional situations requiring such public servants to supress their emotions as part of their labour to match organisational and job expectations while having significant discretion in conduct of their jobs. This article contributes to the growing debates on how frontline ambulance professionals deal with their own emotional labour, within the context of organisational factors and attributes, while carrying out their life-saving public duties. Based on empirical data collected from one NHS Ambulance Service in England, the article contributes to the wider debate about emotional labour experienced by frontline ambulance staff during a crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic.