The study comes at a moment when the question of age and emotion at work has become genuinely contested. Meta-analytic evidence suggests older nurses report slightly lower burnout than younger colleagues, but those effects are small, highly heterogeneous and inconclusive, while more recent reviews have associated older age with higher emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. A popular theoretical lens, Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, proposes that as people age and perceive their time horizons narrowing, they prioritize emotionally meaningful goals, potentially improving emotional well-being later in life. Workplace researchers have borrowed this framework to argue that older workers may enjoy age-related strengths in emotional experience and regulation. Yet a recent systematic review found the empirical evidence for age-related differences in emotional work demands and regulatory strategies is inconsistent, and that studies invoking the theory rarely assess its core mechanisms, such as perceived time horizons or shifting goal priorities. The Swedish team therefore used the theory strictly as an interpretive perspective for contextualizing their findings, not as a framework guiding the design or analysis.

Participants were recruited through a Facebook advertisement promoted across Sweden, screened against strict eligibility criteria, and interviewed individually online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams between late August and mid-October 2025. All interviews, conducted in Swedish by the first author, averaged roughly fifty minutes and were audio-recorded, automatically transcribed and then manually corrected against the recordings. The thirteen final participants included registered nurses, specialist nurses, a midwife, nurse educators, nurse managers and agency nurses, drawn from emergency care, intensive care, anaesthesia, radiology, surgical and urological care, peritoneal dialysis, maternity care, residential aged care and outpatient settings. Twelve were women and one was a man, reflecting the gender composition of the nursing workforce. Data collection concluded when later interviews were judged to largely reiterate information already raised, with relatively little new material emerging.

The researchers applied qualitative content analysis, a systematic method that stays close to participants’ descriptions while allowing categories to be developed at increasing levels of abstraction. Meaning units relevant to the study aim were condensed in Swedish, coded into English, and a total of 381 codes were manually sorted, regrouped, compared, merged and refined until a coherent category structure emerged. The analysis maintained a deliberately low degree of interpretation, remaining predominantly descriptive rather than probing latent meanings. Formal analysis began only after all interviews were complete, ensuring that emerging analytic interpretations could not influence subsequent data collection or modify the interview guide. The final structure comprised three main categories: Professional and Personal Dimensions, Workplace Features, and Societal Transformations.

Within the professional and personal dimension, participants described a career-long development of what the researchers call professional emotional competence. Early professional years were remembered as marked by strong emotional reactions, efforts to conceal feelings to appear competent, and a tendency to carry emotionally demanding experiences home, often with limited confidence and support. Over time, many described becoming calmer and more deliberate. One participant reflected, ‘Emotions don’t go up and down in the same way as they did when I was younger.’ Repeated exposure made similar situations feel more familiar and manageable, and many described clearer boundaries between professional and private life. Yet the picture was not one of uniform mastery. Some intense situations remained challenging even late in careers, as one nurse explained: ‘If it’s a very sensitive situation… and it affects me a lot, a tear may come even for me, and that should be okay.’ Strategies were described as shifting from unreflective endurance toward conscious approaches, including reflective communication, reframing, compartmentalization and seeking collegial support.

Participants also traced their professional identity through emotionally significant experiences: repeated exposure to patient death, traumatic incidents, ethical conflicts, boundary transgressions and inadequate organizational support left lasting impressions that shaped how they approached their work, sometimes prompting changes in behavior, role orientation or career direction. One participant recalled an experience that led to leaving a previous role: ‘I couldn’t handle it. And I felt that I had to quit.’ Reflection on demanding encounters, particularly in palliative, emergency and cancer care, was described as gradually building a sense of meaning. ‘The work with severely ill cancer patients I found to be a fantastic assignment… it was so meaningful in many ways,’ one participant said. Many also described a growing responsibility to mentor less experienced colleagues and pass on professional values. Life course circumstances added another layer: earlier in life, emotional strain was managed alongside extensive family responsibilities that restricted recovery, sometimes coinciding with accumulated stress or burnout, whereas later in life participants described more selective use of support but also an increased need for physical rest and sleep, and, for some, heightened sensitivity to age-related criticism and questioning of their competence.

The workplace features category revealed how strongly emotional demands were embedded in organizational realities rather than arising solely from patient care. Roles involving acute, intensive and cancer care were described as emotionally demanding due to frequent exposure to traumatic situations and patient death. ‘Over all these years, I have worked a lot in cancer care. I’ve had hundreds of patients who have died. So of course, there are a lot of emotions in the work,’ one participant explained. Planned, predictable settings were described as less acutely straining. Strikingly, many participants described poor leadership as more emotionally burdensome than patient care itself. ‘It is much more the managers and the leadership that have upset me than the work itself,’ one participant said. Reporting abuse or ethical concerns without leadership follow-up was described as particularly difficult and associated with persistent moral distress. ‘It was swept under the carpet at every level… It feels heavy when I think about it,’ another reflected. Workload, staffing levels and work pace were described as major sources of emotional strain, in some cases more distressing than patient-related demands, while supportive collegial climates with trust and stable, experienced teams were described as fostering emotional security.

The third main category, societal transformations, captured how participants perceived the emotional landscape of nursing as reshaped by forces far beyond the ward. Several described shifts toward greater administrative and economic control as reducing professional autonomy and increasing workload. ‘Healthcare in the public sector… is under such economic, legal, and political pressure,’ one participant observed. Nurse shortages, reliance on temporary agency staff and extensive documentation were described as intensifying strain, with one participant noting: ‘It can be emotionally challenging to go to work, and you do your best, but you never catch up, and you constantly feel that you are behind.’ Participants also described greater openness among staff to ask questions alongside reduced respect for professional experience, high staff turnover and language-related communication difficulties. Medical advances cut both ways: improved survival reduced some emotional demands associated with patient deaths but contributed to increasingly complex care situations, while digital systems reduced time for direct patient interaction and shared conversations with colleagues. Changing patient expectations, including greater access to online information and higher autonomy, were described as intensifying communication and boundary-setting challenges.

Taken together, the researchers argue, these accounts suggest that changes in emotional demands and emotion regulation across long nursing careers reflect dynamic, contextual and cumulative processes that cannot be understood solely in relation to chronological age. From a Socioemotional Selectivity Theory perspective, the theory’s recent clarifications emphasize that age-related motivational shifts concern the prioritization of emotionally meaningful goals in response to changing perceived time horizons, rather than enhanced in-the-moment regulation of emotional states, and do not imply that taxing work environments become less demanding with age. Although participants described increased confidence, selectivity and intentionality in emotional engagement over time, they also reported persistent and cumulative emotional strain and continued sensitivity to organizational and moral stressors in later career stages. The authors interpret participants’ experiences as an ongoing process of recalibration rather than linear improvement, consistent with systematic evidence showing no generalizable age-related pattern in emotional work demands or regulatory strategies, and with burnout research showing weak, inconsistent or context-dependent associations with age.

The findings carry practical weight for a profession grappling with workforce shortages and retention challenges. The authors suggest that leadership approaches acknowledging emotional strain, facilitating dialogue and providing follow-up after demanding events may better support nurses’ emotional processing, whereas treating emotional strain primarily as an individual responsibility may deepen the burden. Organizational structures such as reflection opportunities, debriefing and collegial support were often described as informal, inconsistent or absent, leaving emotional coping largely to individual nurses. The researchers also caution that their retrospective interviews capture current reconstructions of earlier experiences rather than objective historical records, that the design could not distinguish the influence of chronological age from accumulated professional experience, career stage or cohort effects, and that focusing on nurses who remained in patient care beyond sixty may underrepresent those who left earlier, reflecting potential survivorship or healthy worker effects. Recruitment through Facebook and voluntary participation may also have attracted nurses with particular interest in the topic. Future longitudinal research across career stages, the authors conclude, could clarify how professional development, workplace conditions and societal transformations shape emotional demands across the working lifespan, and how organizations can draw on experienced nurses’ expertise through mentoring and supervision while accommodating changing recovery needs.

Subject of Research: Emotional demands and emotion regulation across late-career nurses' working lives

Article Title: Changes in Emotional Demands and Emotion Regulation as Described by Late‐Career Nurses

Article References: Popucza, T. Z., & Skytt, B. (2026). Changes in Emotional Demands and Emotion Regulation as Described by Late‐Career Nurses. Nursing Open, 13(10), Article e70957. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.70957

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1002/nop2.70957

Keywords: nursing, emotion regulation, emotional demands, burnout, late-career nurses, Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, qualitative content analysis, workforce retention, occupational health, moral distress, healthcare leadership, ageing workforce