The Paper
Harris-Roberts, J Bowen, J Sumner, J Fishwick, D 2013, ‘Health and Safety Inspection of Hairdressing and Nail Salons by Local Authority Environmental Health Practitioners’, Journal of Environmental Health, vol. 75, no. 6, pp. 96-101
Do the authors have the required expertise?
As indicated within the research article, the authors are researchers working for the Human Sciences Unit and Centre for Workplace Health, Health and Safety Laboratory. This indicates that these individuals have had an extensive period of time and experience with a variety of safety concerns ranging from ordinary work related safety violations to extensive violations of safety standards within specific industries within the U.K. This indicates that the authors have the necessary abilities to examine EHP related data and be able to effectively interpret the results in a way that can be understood.
The research question
The primary research question of this paper was whether or not hairdressing and nail salons within the U.K. complied with recent legislation regarding proper environmental health standards within their place of business.
Literature Review
The literature review consisted of a general overview of risk control indicators and includes, but is not limited to, proper disposal of waste, general cleanliness of the facilities, adherence to guidelines involving the disinfection of tools and other equipment, and lastly the general knowledge of the workers and managers regarding proper environmental health practices. The reasoning behind undertaking such an endeavour was to ensure that hairdressers and nail salons that utilize a large array of tools and equipment that regularly come into contact with the human body are following the mandates set forth by the government to prevent the spread of biological contaminants from person to person. When examining the general breadth and depth of the research material utilized, it can be stated that given the general length of the study combined with the data that was examined, the amount of literary sources was sufficiently diverse to encompass all the necessary factors related to proper environmental health within the context of hairdressers and nail salons. There was no excessive reliance on poor or inadequate sources; however, what was noticed was that more than half of the research materials that were used were more than 7 years old. When taking into consideration the fact that environmental health protection practices change annually due to the ever shifting nature of threats to both public and environmental health, the fact that the research material was so old is indicative of the researchers working from an outdated perspective. While it can be argued that some industries do not change overnight, the fact remains that seven years is still more than enough time for significant changes to have occurred.
Ethical Issues
Considering the fact that the researchers merely conducted an environmental analysis which was supplemented within interview data, ethical approval was not necessary.
Methods
The methods utilized within the study were actually pretty straightforward, EHPs examined the 205 salons that were selected and determined whether they adhered to the set guidelines of the government. This involved both an ocular inspection as well as through the EHPs conducting interviews with the salon employees regarding their adherence to specific safety practices. Do note though that one issue within the study that was noted was that the interview questions that were utilized by the EHPs were not posted. The fact that Two-fifths of the interviewees who were part of the study actually understood all of the questions involved in the assessment and could provide evidence of their completion is rather unusual. It could either mean that the salon workers were really that knowledgeable regarding current COSHH practices or that the questions utilized were created in such a way that they could lead the workers towards giving the right answers. It is unknown at this point and bodes further examination given the results indicated within the study. After all the data was collected, the researchers utilized SPSS in order to tabulate the results and come up with the findings of the study.
Conclusion
The conclusion given by the researchers was rather brief, however, since all the needed information was already tackled in the discussion portion of the study, the rather brief conclusion was appropriate.
Is it useful? Is it good?
All in all, I would have to say that the study was actually quite useful in determining whether hairdressers and nail salons within the U.K. were adhering to proper safety standards.
Qualitative research is a type of exploratory research that tries to examine and explain particular aspects of a scenario through an in-depth method of examination (Zhang 2014). While it is applicable to numerous disciplines, it is normally applied to instances which attempt to explain human behaviour and the varying factors that influence and govern such behaviours into forming what they are at the present (Figueiredo 2010). Thus, it can be stated that qualitative research focuses more on exploring various aspects of an issue, developing an understanding of phenomena within an appropriate context and answering questions inherent to the issue being examined (Hitchcox 2013).
For this reason, the involvement of other professional colleagues to review the data, will contribute to the validity of the study (Laramee 2010). The researcher will determine the validity and integrity of the study through the appropriate attributes of trustworthiness, rigor, and quality. Trustworthiness is the degree to which the reader can trust the findings (Valentine 2001). Trust is not really established, but rather built and nurtured. This researcher will first try to cultivate trust in the study participants by conveying to them the research goal is simply to determine how they feel about the strategies utilized by the police and their views on it as well as its impact on their daily life (Aris et al. 2009). The researcher will emphasize to the participants, verbally and in the informed consent form, that there are no ulterior or personal motives with this research project. The researcher will present the findings in a way that the reader knows the study was conducted in a manner that produced trustworthy results.
Another potential qualitative research method to utilize comes in the form of an observation analysis. In this particular case what occurs it that the researcher in effect becomes an observer of a particular situation/event as it transpires then subsequently reflects on the event and draws conclusions based on the reflection that was created. This style is often utilized in various areas of research as a means by which researches observe their research subjects and make their own reflections and conclusions regarding the different behaviours and attitudes shown and how it conforms to their own assumptions. As a result, a researcher would be able to determine the specific changes that occur in these variables and how they impact developmental trends across particular cases.
The rigor of the study must be evident when the researcher presents the findings (Kumar 2013). A rigorous study is one that is designed, conducted, and analyzed properly. The researcher will demonstrate the study’s rigorous design by reporting in the method section that the study was developed with the expert guidance of University faculty, reviewed and approved by the professor in charge, and that the study was conducted by closely following that approved design (Ereaut 2006). Rigor may be demonstrated through the process of thematic analysis. A comprehensive process of data coding and identification of themes must be used. This researcher will select an appropriate template approach from the literature to assist with data analysis (Regmi & Naidoo 2013).
The result of the data analysis shows that there is a 50 percent ratio between male and female individuals who took part in the event. However, when it comes to people that actually attended, the data showed that there were more female attendees than male attendees. Many of the individuals did not take part in the evaluation despite being there. What is surprising about the data is that while there were roughly the same number of male and female health consultations, with females edging out their male counterparts by roughly 5%, the fact remains that there were also relatively few levels of consultations among all those involved. It was interesting to note though that while females had far more sick leaves as compared to their male counterparts, those that were sick the most often were actually the same individuals who had the lowest rate of medical consultations. What this tells me is that females who do not undergo regular health consultations are more likely to have more sick days as compared to females who regularly went for a medical consultation. As for the male population, there was no correlation evident between the number of sick days and the amount of medical consultations taken. As such, this particular aspect of the data is isolated more towards the female population. As for the examination in the job category, it was noted that men dominated the M job category position as compared to their female counterparts, however, it was shown that females had more A and N jobs while both genders were roughly even with the P positions. What this tells me is that job categories that focus more on M are more suited to men while jobs with A and N are more suited to females. While, when it comes to P positions, either gender is capable of filling it.
For assignment two, I have decided to utilize document analysis as my primary method of research. Document based methods of analysis primarily concerns itself with an examination of various academic texts in order to draw conclusions on a particular topic (Rodríguez-Navarro 2012). This means that the researcher draws the researcher data, dependent and independent variables as well as nearly all aspects of the study from the work of other researchers and combines them into a cohesive and understandable whole (Eastwood et al. 2012). Do note though that a research study that relies almost entirely on academic literature without other methods of external data collection runs the risk of being confined primarily to the results exhibited by the research studies utilized.This results in a study is severely constrained in terms of the number of factors that it is capable of encompassing especially in situations where the research subject that is being examined is focused on a narrowly specific topic (Terry 2014). On the other hand, relying purely on academic literature in order to investigate a particular study does have its advantages since it reduces the amount of time need during the initial stages of preliminary research and enables the research to more effectively justify the results presented by indicating that they had already been verified by previous researchers (Shehzad 2011).
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