Ergonomics

Ergonomics

Before starting this course the only thing I could link ergonomics to was looking at how people sit whilst at the computer, thinking of it as more to do with posture and the individuals body rather than all the factors that contribute to completion of a task. I now understand it to be the ‘fit’ between the components of person, activity and environment and how these components either enable or create barriers to the successful completion of a task. If there is a good fit between these components then the task is considered to have good ergonomics and the task will deliver maximal comfort and satisfaction to the individual an enable the task to deliver its intended purpose. The perceived fit of these components will vary from person to person and is dependent on what is best or most preferred for the individual in the specific task. Caulton & Dickson 2007 state that if a therapist has good understanding of ergonomics then they will possess the ability to “constantly make slight invisible adjustments to an activity to adapt to the needs of those taking part and ensure that it continues to work for its intended purpose”.  One of the reasons I chose cooking as my activity was to gain a better understanding of cooking and to familiarise with all aspects of it which I may not be able to grasp had I not been carrying out the activity myself. I feel looking at ergonomics has enabled me to gain a better understanding of issues which can arise within cooking and will help me in future practice in providing good fit between the three components in relation to specific clients.

In relation to the cooking that I have been doing I have analysed the task and components which contribute to the decisions I choose to make within my cooking. I have broken these down in to the three components of person, activity and environment.

Person

I have recently discovered a love for cooking, one that has certainly not been there in the past, having previously being more focussed on the eating aspect of the task and preferring to opt. for the cleaning having grown up by the unspoken rule of the ones who don’t cook do the cleaning up. Recently cooking has been a task that my boyfriend and I have been doing a lot together which has brought in a social aspect for me which I hadn’t experienced with cooking before. I haven’t done a lot of cooking before and don’t have a lot of confidence in myself so I gain a lot of satisfaction when others say they have enjoyed what I have made. Being a student my budget doesn’t always afford for things I might like to cook but this has been good for me as I like exploring what I can do with limited funds and this is something which I believe will be valuable for practice.

Activity

Although I haven’t been the person cooking the meals for the majority of my life I spent a lot of time with my mother in the kitchen growing up helping her minimally by reading out recipes and gathering ingredients or equipment. This has allowed me to gain a pretty good idea of what may be best to use for certain tasks and different ways of doing things. I notice this now that I have begun to cook a lot more and I find recipes really easy to follow using this knowledge. One thing I like about cooking is that activities can easily be selected or adapted for different skill levels and my increased involvement in this activity has allowed me to have good insight into areas which may be difficult and alternative solutions which may be used when problems are faced.

Environment

In regard to environment I have been able to relate really well to how different environments can completely change the experience and possibilities within cooking. I live in a flat of six students with a really small kitchen and all coming from halls last year, not a lot of equipment. This proves to make the task of cooking very difficult and often crowded if more than one person is cooking at a time. On the other hand I do a lot of cooking at my boyfriends flat of seven people with a massive kitchen and all of the people living there having flatted before. The contrast between these two environments has really solidified the importance of the environment for me. At my flat cooking is much more of a necessity based activity due to the lack of space and equipment and is something I prefer to do without other people there simply because of these things. At my boyfriends flat I enjoy experimenting with different things and is often a very social experience for me and I like to have others around. The lack of equipment in my flat exemplified how difficult tasks can be if you don’t have the appropriate resources and made me think about how tasks can become increasingly difficult for someone who has a deficit which restricts them from carrying out an activity. I have however enjoyed the challenge of trying to make do with what I have as I love to use my mind to solve problems and think of alternative solutions, something which will once again be extremely useful in practice.

So that was my take on ergonomics with respect to my task of cooking, I found this task really interesting and useful and am discovering lots of things which will be really useful not only in my personal but also my professional development.   

Reference

Caulton, R. & Dickson, R. (2007). What’s going on? Finding an explanation for what we do. In J. Creek & A. Lawson-Porter (Eds.), Contemporary issues in occupational therapy (pp. 87-114). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.