Ergonomics

What is Ergonomics?

Ergonomics is the study of people's efficiency in their working environment.

Working with computers can be problematic if you don't follow good routines and practices that protect your health. However, making good workstation routines a habit will help you minimize or prevent damage to equipment, loss of personal work, and injuries associated with using a computer and help increase your productivity, personal satisfaction, and sense of accomplishment.  You may have seen people wear braces on their wrists for repetitive strain injury or carpal tunnel syndrome, and you probably know that people can develop injuries from poor body posture, improper keyboard and mouse techniques, and prolonged intervals in front of a computer. Think about an experience where you spent an extended amount of time doing the same task, like playing a video game or shoveling the snow. The repetitive movement of one part of your body can cause strain and discomfort.

To learn more about this topic, please watch the following videos:

Stretching at the Work Station

In order to give your joints and tense muscles a rest from prolonged sitting, it is an excellent practice to do some stretching for 5 minutes each hour that you are sitting at the computer.

Take 5 minutes now to try each of the stretches outlines below.

Assignment

1.  Complete the following workstation ergonomics self assessment by clicking here to open the assessment document.  As you go through the assessment, make note of the items that you are answering "no" for, and, what the suggested action that you need to take to fix the problem.

2.  Using the moodle journal tool, answer the following:

• What suggested practices were you not meeting?  List them. (Discuss a minimum of 5 practices.)
  
• With each item that you listed, in brackets, note what you could do to correct the problem. 
  Eg.  Are frequently used items within easy reach - No (Rearrange workstation).
• Note:  If you answered "yes" to all of the assessment items, look at another workstation that needs some corrections made and analyze it.

Total = 5 marks