OSH Family History

Write a descriptive paper about your family work health and safety history over the past three generations – your grandparents, parents, and yourself. Families are diverse and can be defined narrowly or broadly. For the purposes of this assignment family is defined as “two or more persons who are joined together by bonds of sharing and emotional closeness and who identify themselves as being part of the family” (M. Friedman. Family Nursing: Research, Theory, and Practice). So you may be writing about people other than (or in addition to) a parent or grandparent.

Length: The required length is at least 4 pages, but no more than 6 pages. A standard page is about 250 words, so your paper should be a minimum of 1,000 words.

Address the following questions:

• What jobs or occupations have you and family members held?

• What health and safety issues were encountered?

• Were there any short or long term health consequences from the work family members did?

• What was the occupational safety and health historical context? In other words, what were significant political, economic or social events that may have had an impact on working conditions? This is an important part of the assignment, so be sure not to skip it. It is always disappointing when a student tells a great story about his or her family, but fails make the occupational safety and health history connection and, therefore, cannot get a high grade.