How do clinicians manage the negative emotions that emerge when hospital patients are dissatisfied with their pain treatment? Drawing on a 21-month hospital ethnography, I show that clinicians view opioids as tools that can allow them to avoid engaging in emotional labor with dissatisfied pain patients. I detail two different strategies that clinicians pursued. Through permissive prescription, clinicians used intravenous (IV) opioids liberally to placate unhappy pain patients, temporarily minimizing patients' emotional needs. Through restrictive prescription, clinicians advocated for the more conservative use of IV opioids in the hopes that dissatisfied patients would leave the hospital, reducing their overall emotional workload. Divergent strategies for using opioids to avoid emotional labor led to hierarchical interprofessional conflict, which was itself a source of negative emotions that needed to be managed. Based on these findings, I argue that the desire to avoid emotional labor can shape patient care and workplace relationships.

中文翻译：

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痛苦的感觉：阿片类药物作为避免医院工作中情绪劳动的工具。

当医院患者对疼痛治疗不满意时，临床医生如何管理出现的负面情绪？根据为期 21 个月的医院民族志，我表明临床医生将阿片类药物视为可以让他们避免与不满意的疼痛患者进行情感劳动的工具。我详细介绍了临床医生采取的两种不同策略。通过许可处方，临床医生大量使用静脉注射 (IV) 阿片类药物来安抚不满的疼痛患者，暂时减少患者的情感需求。通过限制性处方，临床医生提倡更保守地使用静脉注射阿片类药物，希望不满意的患者离开医院，减少他们的整体情绪负担。使用阿片类药物来避免情绪劳动的不同策略导致了职业间的等级冲突，这本身就是需要管理的负面情绪的根源。基于这些发现，我认为避免情绪劳动的愿望可以塑造患者护理和工作场所关系。