fabolousstylez

Several of the graduate students in the MSF 603: Occupational Safety class I teach at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU)  have been asking where to find information on occupational safety and health (OSH) or environmental health and safety (EHS) internships that select graduate students. After snarkily responding that they can use the internet as well as I can, I realized that they would not have asked if the answer was easy to find. Most of the internship opportunities available are slated for undergraduate students, so there seem to be far fewer internships for graduate students.  This dearth of graduate student internship opportunities may be for a few reasons: Companies seeking interns are hoping to snag an eager new undergraduate who will work for cheap (or free) rather than a well-trained graduate student, both of which are hoping for a transition into a full-time position. Companies seeking interns may assume that graduate students are already well-established ...

At the request of some of my readership, this is a quick "making of" blog post regarding the Healthcare Security and Safety Week cartoon posted October 11, 2015 on this blog. First I started with the idea: "Ooh, I want to make a cartoon of my team members to recognize their awesomeness during Healthcare Security and Safety Week." The idea happened for two reasons: 1) It's been a couple months since I last drew anything and 2) The cartoons usually make my team chuckle. Plus, a cartoon of yourself is better than a water bottle or other random IAHSS merchandise , right? After I decided a few weeks in advance that I'd like to reserve a Saturday to work on the cartoon, I attempted to find time to make the cartoon over several weekends, but to no avail. It turns out that holding three jobs (full-time safety officer, part-time professor, and occasional consultant) makes it difficult to also have hobbies.  That brings us to this past weekend, where I dutifully ignor...

This week (October 11-15, 2015) is Healthcare Security and Safety Week . The International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS) established this recognition week to highlight the role of security and safety personnel in healthcare facilities. Logo for Healthcare Security and Safety Week 2015 from IAHSS Individuals serving as healthcare security and safety personnel often seem like they are working in the periphery of the healthcare environment - unless the security officers are called to respond to an incident or the safety officer arrives to assist with a chemical spill, you might not notice the valuable work they do to enhance the Environment of Care (EOC). IAHSS has developed a few key messages  associated with Healthcare Security and Safety Week, but I wanted to "flesh out" some ideas about how security and safety team members can be assets to a healthcare organization. Hospitals and other healthcare organizations are ostensibly in the business of helpi...