Psychologists tell nurses 'Gossiping is therapeutic, keep it up.'

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry;  Mental Health
Article Date: 10 Jan 2004 - 0:00 PDT


Apparently, chatter and gossip is good for business. UK psychologists have told workers to keep up the chatter. A study was conducted on nurses by occupational psychologists. The psychologists found that gossip was good for business.

'Gossiping can be seen as trivial but it is very therapeutic and makes people feel better,' Kathryn Waddington of the School of Nursing at London's City University said, a co-author of the study.

Ms Waddington told employers at Britain's annual conference of occupational psychologists that tittle-tattle could help them to become more creative.

'Gossip is often viewed with suspicion by employers, but it could potentially have positive benefits for them and their staff in stressful professions such as nursing,' Ms Waddington said.

'We have found gossip to be frequently used by nurses as an immediate means of expressing emotions and opinions and as such employers in the health sector might wish to view gossip in a different way,' she said.

After interviews with about 100 nurses, occupational psychologists found that some (nurses) spent up to four hours a day gossiping.

The researchers also stressed that there was good gossip and bad gossip. Bad gossip, they said (negative gossiping) could be bad for morale, especially if it involved spreading malicious or false rumours.

Women seemed to be more honest about their gossiping. Men tended to call it networking (or de-briefing).

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