Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
management practices and technology, professions and the conditions of
professional activity are transformed. Trainers are involved in this change
in two key ways: their profession leads them to accompany these muta-
tions and changes of work, and they are, themselves, subjected to them
(Tourmen and Prévost, 2010). In this case, activity analysis highlights the
new tasks and missions assigned to trainers, as well as the difficulties they
encounter and their impact on health (Delgoulet, 2012). Amongst the dif-
ficulties that have been identified in this way, the following can be noted:
the diversity and concurrence of multiple responsibilities for some train-
ers, the variety of tasks which they carry out, the pressures related to time
management, and the long workdays. These studies also highlight the
existence of subpathological disorders, intense feelings of fatigue, as well
as risks of MSDs. All of these elements question the true possibilities that
these operators have for professional development.
Discussion and conclusion
In this chapter, our goal has been to show how ergonomics contributes
to the development of operators by supporting the development of their
skills at work and in training. This, in turn, contributes to the preservation
of their health, their safety, and more broadly, to the performance of the
sociotechnical systems they are a part of. Over the course of our analysis,
the classical ergonomic topics of the design and transformation of work
situations have crossed the path of development (Béguin and Cerf, 2004).
Four reasons can be found for this:
• The development of operators, through the construction and con-
solidation of their skills, is closely related to their health.
• This health and this intelligence of operators, and the operative
trade-offs they are able to make in the face of unforeseen events in
work situations, depending on existing margins of manoeuvre, are
a factor of performance.
• The activity of trainers, the activity of trainees and the analysis of
these activities can nourish the work of designers by contributing
to the process of designing future tools and situations for train-
ing. They can also foster mutual learning between designers and
operators/ future users.
• An ergonomic approach to training renews the debate on design
domain (e.g. organization or workplace design), in the sense that its
goal is, once again, to construct situations of potential development
that will allow the activity of operators and trainers to deploy.
These are, no doubt, new issues and new research topics that are open-
ing up for ergonomists - but also new challenges that face the theoretical
