1. Identify an intervention
Identify a workplace based OHS intervention that is designed to promote health and safety of workers in one of the following sectors: health care, social services, manufacturing (warehousing), agriculture, transportation, public administration & administrative support services, mining and oil/gas extraction, accommodation and food, retail trade, education, utilities. Here are a few examples to choose from:
• Ergonomics or other musculoskeletal (MSK) injury prevention intervention (e.g. participatory ergonomics, training and workplace design, patient lift assist for hospitals)
• Return to work (RTW) intervention (e.g. of injured workers)
• Physical intervention program among sedentary workers (e.g. standing desks and sit‐stand desks, active workstations, such as treadmill desks or cycling desks)
• Wellness program (e.g. stress reduction, etc.)
• Interventions to prevent occupational noise-induced hearing loss (e.g. hearing loss prevention program)
• Other health promotion programs directed at reducing work-related illness/injury (e.g. exercise, infectious disease prevention, etc.)
• Interventions to reduce violence in the workplace
• Occupational health and safety management system implementation
• Safety climate interventions
• Disability management interventions
• Interventions to combat sexual harassment in the workplace
• Tele rehabilitation (or other occupational therapy interventions)
• An intervention specific to your workplace (e.g. using protective equipment, ladder safety for construction, etc.)
2. Identify some real-world examples where the intervention you selected was used
Find at least 2 examples of real companies in the highlighted industrial sectors above that have implemented the intervention that you are interested in researching. These don’t have to be local companies. The companies you choose to write about could also be one you own, work for or worked for, or are able to access through your network. For the identified company, some aspects to research on and include in your report are:
• why the company implemented the intervention,
• the implementation phase and what was done,
• the results of the interventions (i.e. were physical demands reduced, did the number of injury claims go down, were people more satisfied with their work, etc.),
• the facilitators and barriers if any that the company experienced in implementing this intervention.
You can obtain this information through the Internet or through media releases, or from scientific publications or reports or the library or other publications (trade magazines etc.) or company reports and publications etc.
3. Identify some key informants to interview for the study
Just like in your previous assignments, consider interviewing at least 1 key informant. The purpose of this interview would be to add insight to your research that supplements what you have already found. The interviewee could also be your source of information for some of the questions listed in 2 above. Your interviewee could be any worker / professional that could provide additional information about the intervention. For example, in the case of an ergonomic intervention, you may want to interview an ergonomist or a researcher who evaluated an ergonomic intervention, or a worker who works at a plant where there has been an ergonomic intervention etc. Another random example: in the case of a RTW intervention you may want to interview an injured worker that was returned to work or was accommodated, and ask questions like what makes it difficult for employees to return to work. What things make/could make it easier for employees to return to work? Etc. You could consider also interviewing or contacting a company representative for the company you are researching or the author of the report or study on which you are basing your research to try to ask them a few questions on some of the aspects above. Other questions that you could ask in your interview that could add depth to your topic include questions on training, and the existing policies and procedures etc.