SoTAC Project

Caring for work: a collective activity. Reconfiguring multi-professional collaboration in the new occupational health and prevention services

Following the “Lecocq Reports” submitted to the Prime Minister on August 28, 2018 and October 28, 2019, and transposing the National Interprofessional Agreement concluded on December 10, 2020, Law No. 2021-1018 of August 2, 2021 to strengthen prevention by health at work endorses a new reform of the occupational health system in France. This legislative change intends to fundamentally modify the missions of the Occupational Health Services:

– On the one hand, it is about breaking down barriers between occupational health and public health;

– On the other hand, and under certain conditions, to extend the action of services to the needs of new audiences.

In order to respond to these new prerogatives, this reform also seeks to transform the organization of what is now known as the Prevention and Occupational Health Services (SPST), in particular through several measures calling on inter-professional collaborations. and working in a multidisciplinary team. All this therefore calls into question the future reconfigurations within the PTSDs in terms of multi-professional cooperation, as well as their effects on the services offered, in a context where the shortage of occupational physicians is significant.

However, social science work focusing on the organization of occupational health has rarely focused on interprofessional relations and collaborations, to focus primarily on the activity of occupational physicians (eg. to time pressure, relationships with employers, forms of activism, etc.). In this context, the SoTAC research project aims to fill this gap and sets itself several objectives:

– The first is to grasp the content of the professional interactions that take place in the PTSD, this by apprehending “in the process of being made” the reconfigurations generated by the reform;

– The second is to identify the processes of territorialization of these reconfigurations, insofar as the application and the implementation of the law are always subject to local translations, proceeding from the socio-historically constructed relationships between the bodies in presence, these translations that can be vectors for development projects and specific partnerships;

– The third is to identify the effects of these reconfigurations on the organization of services, on the activity of professionals or their view of their profession;

– The fourth concerns the possible effects of these reconfigurations in terms of training and recruitment by seeking to understand what are the characteristics and skills expected of professionals in these new PTSDs.

The outcome of this research is to observe the changes at work, identify any “sticking points” or “good practices”, and ultimately help support the services and professionals to adapt to the situation. new framework given to them. The results of the research could, for example, materialize through the establishment of “training kits” – initial and continuing – in multi-professional cooperation. Ultimately, while being essentially observational in nature, this research aims to promote the improvement of the efficiency of PTSDs, the coordination of the actors who compose them and thus help to continue improving the services provided to users.