Ergonomics work assessment in rural industrial settings: A student occupational therapy project

Abstract

This case study describes a student occupational therapy (OT) program, the creation of a worksite assessment project as a part of a Community Connections: Partners for Learning and Service grant funded by Health Resources and Services Administration.

The primary goals were to design occupation-based community learning experiences in a variety of rural community settings, so that students might benefit from participating in the community based learning and: based on the results, embed occupation-based learning into existing occupational therapy curriculum.

The components of the project and the ergonomics content of the OT education program are described; details of the work assessment are presented with analysis of data from the student evaluation of this project.