Professional practices at the heart of the crisis in emergency management: The example of the COVID-19 crisis

Our organisations have been severely shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic and the world of work has not been spared. Only essential activities continued in order to maintain a minimum level of functioning, just like in hospitals or in local authorities. During the first five months of the crisis in 2020 (from March to July), 34 interviews were conducted in these two public service entities in order to examine the management of urgent matters in the light of ``activity'' and at the heart of the crisis. The results show that while the emergency is mainly managed by an improvisation activity based on the intuition of the actors in the field, the crisis is managed by governance in a rational manner leading to the drafting of procedures after the event. This crisis situation pushed organisations to reconfigure themselves in an emergency, allowing the development of new professional practices. The strategies of damage control and proceduralization will be discussed. Perspectives are opened on the questions of training for these crisis situations against a background of developing presumption of ignorance. (c) 2022 AIPTLF. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Professional practices at the heart of the crisis in emergency management: The example of the COVID-19 crisis

Our organisations have been severely shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic and the world of work has not been spared. Only essential activities continued in order to maintain a minimum level of functioning, just like in hospitals or in local authorities. During the first five months of the crisis in 2020 (from March to July), 34 interviews were conducted in these two public service entities in order to examine the management of urgent matters in the light of "activity” and at the heart of the crisis. The results show that while the emergency is mainly managed by an improvisation activity based on the intuition of the actors in the field, the crisis is managed by governance in a rational manner leading to the drafting of procedures after the event. This crisis situation pushed organisations to reconfigure themselves in an emergency, allowing the development of new professional practices. The strategies of damage control and proceduralization will be discussed. Perspectives are opened on the questions of training for these crisis situations against a background of developing presumption of ignorance. © 2022 AIPTLF

Les pratiques professionnelles au cœur de la crise dans la gestion de l’urgent: L’exemple de la crise du COVID-19

Resumen Nos organisations ont été fortement ébranlées par la pandémie COVID-19 et le monde du travail n’a pas été épargné. Seules les activités essentielles se sont poursuivies afin de maintenir un niveau minimal de fonctionnement, tout comme dans les hôpitaux ou dans les collectivités territoriales. Durant les cinq premiers mois de crise en 2020 (de mars à juillet), 34 entretiens ont été menés dans ces 2 entités du service public afin de décortiquer à la lumière de « l’activité » et au cœur de la crise, la gestion de l’urgent. Les résultats montrent que si l’urgent est principalement géré par une activité d’improvisation construite à partir de l’intuition des acteurs de terrain, la crise est gérée par la gouvernance de manière rationnelle aboutissant à postériori à la rédaction de procédures. Cette situation de crise a poussé les organisations à se reconfigurer dans l’urgence, permettant alors le développement de nouvelles pratiques professionnelles. Les stratégies de damage control et de procéduralisation seront discutées. Des perspectives sont ouvertes sur les questions de formation à ces situations de crise sur un fond de développement de présomption d’ignorance.

Covid 19 - Limiting and Managing Risk in a Physiotherapy School

The Covid 19 pandemic has changed our working and our living conditions, the environment has become hostile. We propose to briefly present an ergonomic intervention aiming at resuming classes in a physiotherapy school in the Parisian suburbs in this crisis context. The intervention was a confrontation of Covid's recommendations (evolving regularly) with the functioning of the lessons. The main problems questioned were: the school being closed during the intervention there was no activity, how to intervene without observing the activity? How to take into account that the privet’s practices of the students' school have an influence on the health situation inside? Therefore, we imagined with the trainers a phase of perceptive simulation activity (PS) on the "residual" activity in order to have a representation of the organization of the lessons. In a second time, a transparent relationship with the students was established with the main idea "what you do outside has an influence inside (the school)". Intervening in pandemic was new conditions. It was therefore necessary to adapt the methods of intervention to the situation and ergonomics allows this adaptability to situations. In the idea of empowering interventions, the system and the individuals (teachers and students) have adapted, evolved over the course of the recommendations and the appearance of Covid 19 cases. Both groups have probably developed their theoretical, practical and organizational knowledge of infectiology, which is an asset for caregivers or future caregivers. Finally, the ergonomist has also developed and adapted his practice to the singular situation. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.