Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
observed in some dimensions of activity throughout night shifts, has nota-
bly been noted with regard to communication at work, movement and
information gathering. These findings demonstrate a gradual decrease in
activity throughout night-time work, reproducing a curve similar to the cir-
cadian variation of wakefulness with a minimum between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m.
However, performing more actions or accomplishing them faster dur-
ing a decrease in wakefulness does not imply working less effectively.
Adjustments are made so that the crucial goals of activity are reached at
all times, and so that productivity is identical. In addition to the quantita-
tive variations mentioned above, one must also add qualitative reorgani-
zations of work activity. For example, surveillance personnel working a
night schedule will group together the tasks that require reflection, preci-
sion and decision-making in the earliest part of the night, and then intro-
duce the tasks that are more physical and do not require quite so much
attention (Prunier-Poulmaire, 2008). This strategy makes it possible to
maintain wakefulness and to break up the monotony of some of the tasks.
In the hospital sector, nurses and pediatric assistants, over the course of
long night shifts (11.5 hours), use strategies for care that are both specific
and quicker at 2 a.m. compared with other periods of night-time care. Some
secondary care activities are postponed in order to preserve the sleep of
infants, as well as avoid the accumulation of fatigue of the caring staff, by
allowing them to take a break before the final stage of the care schedule,
which they view as the most difficult (Barthe and Quéinnec, 2005).
All of these results focus here on the activity of an operator alone.
However, collective reorganizations can also occur within teams, in order
to cope with the requirements of work while collectively managing the
individual variations of the level of wakefulness. Dorel and Quéinnec
(1980) showed that in the control of a production process in a drinking
water factory, there was a collective reorganization of the supervision work
aiming to give as much responsibility as possible to the operator who will
have a 3-day rest period at the end of the night. This makes it possible
to protect the second operator, who will return the following night. In
the neonatology unit mentioned above, the nurses and assistants assist
each other in order to decrease their workload and provide each other
with specific technical help or skills at various times during their sched-
ule (Barthe, 2000). They also organize their work collectively so as to be
able to allow themselves individual breaks. In customs brigades, an infor-
mal attribution of tasks between agents is implemented. It is the agents
who begin the night shift who take on the most delicate and hazardous
tasks (e.g. interrogating users who have committed an offence), since
these require a great amount of self-control, attentive listening, boundless
patience and a strong concentration (Prunier-Poulmaire, 1997).
It seems therefore legitimate to claim that one can 'learn' to work
by night or in rotating schedules, or at least learn to 'skilfully deal with
