Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
it'. One can acquire specific knowledge about oneself and one's tasks -
modulating these tasks differently depending on at what time they are
carried out. This knowledge makes it possible to reorganize work. The
strategies presented above, which in concrete terms are translated notably
into a temporal reorganization of specific actions occurring at night, sug-
gest that workers have strong needs in terms of autonomy.
A construction over the course of months and years
Over the course of months and years spent working atypical hours, work-
ers develop specific experience, skills, knowledge and know-how for the
work carried out in rotating schedules and night schedules. This experi-
ence provides workers with resources allowing them to better manage
the difficulties and requirements that are specific to their schedule, or to
protect themselves from them.
A study conducted in the hospital sector (Toupin and Volkoff, 2007;
Toupin, 2012), involving night shift nurses in a pneumology department,
illustrates this point. The observations and analyses carried out as part of
the ergonomic intervention aimed to highlight the ways in which experi-
ence allows the nursing staff to better 'manage the night'. In this sector,
the work that is carried out is not very different between night and day,
but it does have some specific features in the night-time. The conditions
in which the prescribed tasks are achieved are particular, because of the
psychophysiological state of the nurses (fatigue, decrease in wakefulness),
of the features of the work environment at that time (work in small groups,
doctors and middle managers are absent, etc.) and of the state of patients
(tired, anxious, etc.). This specific character of nocturnal activity must be
highlighted, in order to avoid considering the night nurse - whose work
is tightly prescribed, with compulsory tasks that are entirely dictated
by medical prescriptions and by the state of patients - just like a nurse
who would simply work in another period of the nycthemeral clock. This
is also true in many other professional sectors (Prunier-Poulmaire and
Gadbois, 2004).
Yet, workers who start working the night shift are not always suffi-
ciently informed and trained with respect to the specific features, stakes
and difficulties of the trade in this period of the day. This may lead to
problematic situations. For example, how can one manage a decrease in
vigilance during the night shift and the appearance of fatigue during a
cycle of rotations over several successive work nights, during emergency
situations that require the worker to be alert and awake?
Over years of practice, night workers redefine their tasks, by setting
themselves new, 'temporally situated' goals (Gaudart and Ledoux, this
volume). With experience comes the wish to anticipate the future work
activity, with two main goals:
