Ergonomics of cooking a meal

Ergonomics is an important concept to be mindful of when carrying out an activity. Dul and Weerdmeester (2008) state that ergonomics is derived from the greek words of ergon (work) and nomos (law). Ergonomics aims to design applicances, technical systems and tasks in such a way to improve human, safety, health, performance and comfort. Through using ergonomics an activity is able to adapted where necessary to fit the clients needs and be suitable for the environment. Carlson & Dickson (2007) explains that occupational therapists need to make slight adaptations to an activity to suit the needs of the clients involved and continues to be effective for its intended purpose.


In class we discussed ergonomics in three categories person, environment and activity so that is exactly how I am going to analyse this task.


PERSON

• Cooking is an activity that is well known to me and that I enjoy
• I have multiple skills with cooking but am learning new skills
• I have a small budget when it comes to buying food to cook as I am a student
• I need an adequate amount of personal space in order to carry out my cooking
• I am able to do other things whilst cooking eg watch tv, talk to my flatmates, have a beer
• I find cooking very therapeutic

ENVIRONMENT

• A kitchen is preferred but not essential to complete the process
• Heights of bench's and stove tops need to be suited for the person to prevent bending or awkward positions for me the heights were great
• Positioning of items in the kitchen: Pots and pans are located in a cupboard under the so getting these is not ergonomically friendly. But the location of knives and plates which is an over hanging cupboard is great not too high.
• Cooking is culturally appropriate for me as my grandmother and mother first taught me how to cook
• To cook the social environment can be present but not to the extent that it is distracting and the cooking gets forgotten about

ACTIVITY

• Some meals are more complex because there are more aspects to the recipe so therefore different levels of engagement is needed for different levels.
• Recipes guide the process of cooking
• Some foods can be expensive so people can not afford them so they are unable to cook certain recipes

References:


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. Chichester: John-Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Dul, J., & Weerdmeester, B. A. (2008). Ergonomics for beginners: A quick reference guide (3rd Ed). USA: CRC Press.