Objective: to analyze the work activity of ambulance drivers of the Urgent Medical Aid Service (SAMU).
Methods: an ergology-based study which operates according to the conception of life-health-disease postulated by Georges Canguilhem and Activity Ergonomics was carried out. Eleven dialogical interviews were conducted with drivers from the Mobile Intensive Care Unit of Paraíba state, Brazil, in 2010.
Results: according to the drivers interviewed, the main difficulties to realize their work result from the organizational way in which the work is prescribed by SAMU, the management of time during the activity, the traffic intensity, the relationship with the service users, and the risk of being contaminated by diseases. In contrast, ambulance drivers acquire meaning to their work when they are able to save lives, within a combination of factors – solidarity, trust and cooperation. When these possibilities are missing, the working group serves as a support for those ambulance drivers who want to remain in their profession despite their frustration.
Conclusion: it was possible to observe that, even facing the daily variability of work, ambulance drivers develop operating ways to handle their work situations, cooperating to the solution of problems and/or adjusting to the unpredictability within the teamwork.
work; transportation; occupational health; practice management