Unit VIII Article Review

Unit VIII Article Review

For this assignment, review the topics you have studied in this course, and find a peer-reviewed article on a topic that interests you. You can use the databases in the CSU Online Library or another source that contains peer-reviewed articles. Write a minimum one-page review of the article that includes the following information:

 Briefly introduce and summarize the article.

 Identify the author’s main points.

 Who is the author’s intended audience?

 Were any specific issues addressed in the article? What were they?

 How does the information in the article apply to this course? Does it support the information in your textbook?

 How could the author expand on the main points?

The article must be at least three- to five-pages long and no more than three years old. Use APA style when writing your review as well as for in-text citations and references. Title and reference pages are not included in the page count.

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

The article “Occupational Health Surveillance: Pulmonary Function Testing in Emergency Responders” looks at the baseline health when it comes to coming in contact with fumes, gases, and particulates. When having to use respiratory equipment the health of the emergency responder is vital. This study helps to examine the pulmonary function (PF) across a population of emergency responders. The authors, McCluskey, Harbison, Johnson, Xu, Morris, Wolfson, and Harbison (2014) used a population of 127 emergency responders from Florida who were over the age of 18 and required PF testing. McCluskey et al. (2014) provided information about the sample including if their gender and if they smoked or not. Emergency responders can oftentimes experience side effects of being exposed to fumes, gases, and particulates, sometimes compromising their PF.

Intended Audience, Limitations, Issues and Main Points

The intended audience includes individuals and supervisors within the emergency response profession, and researchers looking at the PF of emergency personnel. One of the main points is that spirometry data can help to quickly gauge certain occupational populations. However more methodologies should continue to assess this area. The authors did acknowledge that these studies may still be open to reporting bias, interpretation, and under-reporting (McCluskey, et. al, 2014). One objective of the National Institute of Occupational Safety (NIOSH) is to find emergency response populations that are at-risk for PF problems (McCluskey, et al., 2014). Another point is that populations should be identified to ensure workers are kept safe. At a minimum some professions require they have a respiratory program including a PR fit test for respiratory equipment. Another point made by McCluskey et al., (2014) is that emergency personnel are made up of a very diverse crowd of individuals within police, fire, and emergency medical professionals.

Application to Course Material

Although much of the course material was about NFPA 25 this article deals with first responders and their PF related to the fumes, and gases they might encounter. The course material focused a lot on the testing, maintenance, and inspection of water-based fire protection systems. If the fire protection system was to malfunction first responders may end up dealing with more smoke inhalation. Without a healthy PF the first responder may find it more difficult to fight, or save someone life including their own. Essentially without healthy lung function will succumb to smoke inhalation, or chemical fumes much quicker.

Expanding on the Main Points

Conclusion

References

McCluskey, J., Harbison, S., Johnson, G., Xu, P., Morris, S., Wolfson, J., & Harbison, R

References

McCluskey, J., Harbison, S., Johnson, G., Xu, P., Morris, S., Wolfson, J., & Harbison, R. (2014).Occupational health surveillance: Pulmonary function testing in emergency responders.Journal of Emergencies, Trauma and Shock, 7(3), 180-185.doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0974-2700.136861