The concept of Bourdieu's habitus effects nurses’ approach to patients. Habitus is the site of nurses’ internalizations of the rules in the field of care work, where nurses acquire emotional habitus that corresponds to ethical values and feeling rules of care work. If nurses do not manage their emotions in accordance with the moral disposition, social suffering will be occur. Determining social suffering helps to understand how a tension between the field of care work and emotional habitus can violate nurses’ well-being and cause burnout.

To determine the emotional habitus of nurses’ with the high level of burnout.

Clinic nurses of Hacettepe university hospitals constituted the population of this study. Firstly, Nursing Information Form, Maslach Burnout Scale were applied to participating 350 nurses. Secondly, semi-structured thorough individual interviews were made with 39 nurses of 201 with the high level of burnout.

With content analysis emotional habitus, problem areas for emotional habitus, results of these problem areas, optimal behavior in expressing feelings of nurses and related to suggestions to gain these statements total twenty themes were reached. Nurses suggested proposals to gain optimal behavior in expressing feelings. These are individual development, obtaining professional knowledge, role modeling, experiencing. Also, nurses wanted to see value by patients and hospital administration and respect patients.

To prevent and cope with burnout; it has been proposed that awareness training programmes and course contents about emotional habitus, management emotions should be arranged.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.