Warning - this job contains strong language and adult themes: do nurses require thick skins and broad shoulders to deal with encounters involving swearing?

Swearing is used to express deep emotional feelings so it is not surprising that nurses encounter it because they connect with people at their most vulnerable. Perhaps more surprising is the frequency with which nurses are the target. This chapter will explore the complexities of the offensiveness of bad language in the workplace, whether nurses would benefit from becoming "thick skinned and broad shouldered" to counter the impact, or if some other method might more successfully deal with the emotional effect and assist them to cope with this sometimes ''extreme behaviour with presence and attunement" (Delaney 2009a). Swearing is a complex issue and an understanding of its causes and effects will assist nurses to deal with it. Three kinds of factors affect swearing: neurological (including the cerebral cortex, which governs speech comprehension and production, and subcortical systems, which regulate emotional reactions); sociocultural (including gender, cultural background, taboo, law and etiquette and degree of formality); and psychological (including age, coping style, religiosity and moral reasoning) (Jay 1999). Swearing as a research topic has been largely ignored by academics and has not been discussed in the nursing context, despite the insight to be provided into "discourses of power and gender, social, group formation and maintenance, the acquisition of linguistic competence in young children, and ... psychological and neurological disorders" (Burns 2008: 61). Even rarer is discussion of the positive aspects of swearing or its impact on the victims.