Family Work Health and Safety History Essay

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 someone important in your life 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 and what health and safety issues were encountered? 
• Were there any short or long term health consequences from the work family members did?
• Were your family members in a union?  If so, did it make a difference in the safety of their work?  If they were managers or owned a business, what was their experience being responsible for the health and safety of others?
• What was the occupational safety and health historical context?  In other words, what were political, economic or social events that 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 their family, but fails make the occupational safety and health history connection and, therefore, cannot get a high grade.

I suggest you view and complete the Week 2 lecture before writing your paper. The paper is your story and is an important point of reference throughout the course.  

You do not have to use a specific format (e.g. APA or Chicago) but your work should be edited, proof-read, and employ good writing mechanics.  Please double-space and submit as a Word doc. 

You must appropriately cite any content in your paper that is not yours.  I don’t care what citation style you use, but your reader should be able to 1) know the rightful owner of the content and 2) be able to find it.  

Don’t forget that you can find great writing resources and citation guides in the tool section of the Course Essentials module.