Travailler dans un réseau de santé : effets sur la santé psychique au travail

The new needs as regards care taking charge of patients have contributed to the creation of health networks. As they are growing fast, they are an integral part of the French sanitation system. The impact, on the health professionals, of networking is, today, the object of contrasted research and results, but has little been studied as far as Social Psychology, Work and Organizations are concerned. This article follows a research project which had the objective, on the one hand, to describe the effects of the participation to a health network mental health at work and, on the other hand, to examine the variables and process accounting for the variability of these effects. This research privileges an approach to the health network as a place of socialization and personalization (Malrieu, 1979). The research on the ground is carried out in collaboration with the health network town-hospital Prevention and Taking charge of Pediatric Obesity Network (RéPPOP) Midi-Pyrénées. We have carried out semi-guided interviews with 20 private professionals (8 doctors, 8 dieticians, 3 psychologists, 1 physiotherapist) members of the RePPOP Midi-Pyrénées network. The main results show that the perception of positive and/or negative effects of networking on mental health varies according to the age of membership of the network and the processes of transfer of experience (from professional practice within the network to professional practice off-network and vice versa). Proposals are deduced in terms of continuing education within the network.