MPH5244 Ergonomic and Physical Hazards - Assessment 2b: Written Report

Assessment overview

This assessment task requires you to write a report on an occupational physical hazard/s within a particular workplace environment. Your chosen topic is to encompass the learning outcomes below.

This assessment is based on your work for Assessment 2a: Report proposal - oral presentation, and the feedback you received from those assessments.

Learning Outcomes

The purpose of this assessment task is for you to:

2. identify common occupational physical hazards and related risks and tools for risk quantification;
3. apply the principles of the 'hierarchy of controls' to the control of physical hazards, including communicating effectively to workers about the risks;
4. conduct a simple ergonomic assessment using a systems approach to consider risks to workers from equipment, tools, environment and work design factors; and
5. interpret the assessment results and develop and effectively communicate appropriate recommendations for risk

Assessment details

Definition: A report is a concise piece of writing that sets out and analyses a situation or problem, often making recommendations for future actions. Where an essay focuses on arguments and reasoning, a report concentrates on the logical presentation of facts. Reports include headings and specific sections, and may include bullet points, figures and tables, and appendices. Detailed reports are usually structured: description of problem or situation; interpretation and critical analysis of the event or situation; evaluation of the facts or results of the research; discussion of the likely outcomes of future courses of action; recommendations as to a course of action; and conclusions.

We’ll write customized paper for you.
Get Upto 30% OFF on your Order!

Order Now Whatsapp Now

Requirements

You are to write a report on the following, building on Assessment 2a: Report proposal - oral presentation, and the feedback you received from that assessment:

identification, assessment and analysis of the properties and effects of a selected occupational ergonomic or physical hazard/s within a particular work environment;

a simple ergonomic assessment using a systems approach and relevant tools to consider related risks to workers;

an evidence based analysis and discussion of your assessment results; and, recommendations for controls including implementation and communication strategies.

An appropriate topic will often be in the form of a problem or question you wish to consider, for example, “Could the company I work for improve its ergonomic practices?” "How could we reduce neck and shoulder injuries in ultrasonographers?" "How could we reduce common musculoskeletal injuries associated with manual handling practices in a manufacturing industry?" "Ergonomic assessment and control of hazards associated with working in a confined space in an airplane/ship". The problem may be a local problem in your workplace or community, or a more general one. You should obtain and read background material on your topic (you may obtain this from library database or relevant organisational website searching, media, or the web etc).

Your report should clearly cover the information below:

Audience

Identify and define the problem in terms meaningful to your ‘audience’, e.g. company management, community group, union, government agency etc. It is crucial to be focused on your client!

Methods

Outline how you acquired the information/data (visits, interviews, literature search, websites & keyword search, etc.) and compiled and analysed your findings.

Findings

Present findings so your non-technical audience understands them. Photos are helpful when appropriate. (The use of “risk identification, assessment and control” is likely to be a helpful framework). Be careful with language including the use of the words 'risk', 'hazard' and 'safe' as these have technical meanings and common understandings may not always be the same. Relevant health issues (musculoskeletal disorders; hearing loss etc.) must be discussed. Your assessment should use relevant assessment tools and your discussion must be evidence based.

Conclusions / recommendations

Finish with conclusions and/or recommendations (controls) which are expressed in language which is useful for your audience. You should spell out clearly what needs to be done, by whom and by when. The recommendations should follow from the findings and contain no surprises or significant new information. Be clear how you have gone from the problem, to the methods, to the assessment/findings, to the recommendations. The connections should be clear to your audience. The aim is to get your audience to accept the recommendations, so take them with you in your narrative and make sure they arrive still paying attention and understanding what you intend and why.

Important information

You should set out your report so it is easy to follow and keep the body of your report in plain English. All material should be in the Report, including any technical information that may need sufficient explanation so that it is readable by your audience. Do not include appendices. Photos and diagrams help communicate your findings greatly.

Photos, technical sketches or other illustrations are a good way of presenting a lot of factual information which may be difficult to describe otherwise. Always get permission before taking photos, or, if actual photos of your particular issue are not available you may use generic ones as long as they are referenced.

Use language and descriptions that will be familiar to your audience. Do not overwhelm them with technical language or explanations, but never talk down to your audience. Always assume that they have an interest in understanding. Ask yourself:

What does the audience need to know in order to make an informed decision? How do you maintain interest for them to grasp what you want them to know? Will they understand the critical issues?

Do not be trivial or 'dumb-down' information. Profound things can be simply explained, but this takes care, time and practice. It is often useful to get a non-technical person to read your report, and then rewrite any concepts they don’t understand or are confused by.

If using numbers be clear about units of measurement and orders of magnitude. Never mix units of measurement unless totally unavoidable or without explanation. If changes in order of magnitude are involved use the same base so that comparisons are clear. An example would be simple linear measurements of 1 centimetre compared to 1 metre. This would be better expressed as "1 centimetre compared to 100 centimetres". Do not mix imperial and metric measurements – you should always use metric measurements in the Australian context.

Your report is to be written for an educated but a mainly non-scientific audience, and should therefore be written in language that this group would understand. Avoid the use of jargon, and explain specialised terms and acronyms if you use them.

Your report should be based on peer-reviewed scientific literature that you have sourced for yourself through literature and database searches; that is, scientific journal articles, papers, books and so on. You can also reference published government reports and publications, institutional reports and regulatory standards, and other similar official materials. Do not use general websites for information.

All work that includes the intellectual property (authored material) of others (including books, journal articles, magazines, news articles, images, tables, websites, photos, social media, etc.) must be given appropriate attribution.

You must cite all of your sources using the Vancouver referencing style.

For full information about how this assessment will be marked, refer to the Assessment criteria and rubric later in this book.

Questions to consider when approaching readings

The amount of reading that you are expected to do at university can be daunting. However, with some preparation and using critical reading techniques, you can learn to read effectively and efficiently. Answering the following questions of the readings will help you learn to read more effectively.

What is the main theme or point of the piece?

What aspects does the writer focus upon, and why?

What explanations or supportive evidence are drawn upon? What assumptions are being made?

Do you find any of the ideas or information confusing or intriguing?

What conclusions might you draw from the piece, and are they necessarily the same as the writer's conclusions?