School: Medical and Health Sciences

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Introduction to Occupational Health and Safety
  • Unit Code

    HST1152
  • Year

    2025
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    4
  • Credit Points

    15
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
    Online
  • Unit Coordinator

    Mrs Sally-Anne DOHERTY

Description

All employees are potentially exposed to occupational health and safety risks in the workplace. In this unit, students will be introduced to a range of occupational health and safety (OHS) issues and how they can be mitigated. Students are encouraged to develop the skills and knowledge needed to make workplaces safer and healthier. Occupational health and safety will be investigated from a national and international perspective in a variety of industries.

Incompatible Rule

Institution wide - Students enrolled HST1152 cannot take OHS3404.

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded HST1150

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Explain how the Risk Management Process is used to identify, investigate and control workplace hazards.
  2. Present Occupational Health and Safety information to a professional audience.
  3. Discuss the historical development of the Australian Occupational Health and Safety legal framework, including the impact upon Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
  4. Apply research skills to investigate accident causation theories to prevent future incidents.

Unit Content

  1. The development of occupational health and safety internationally and in Australia.
  2. Legal frameworks for work/occupational health and safety.
  3. Concepts of hazard and risk.
  4. Safety hazards: gravitational, slips, trips and falls, mobile plant, electrical hazards, and biomechanical hazards.
  5. Health hazards: chemical, biological, noise, thermal, light and radiation, and psychological hazards.
  6. Risk management standards, frameworks, applications and process.
  7. Accident causation theories, accident investigation and reporting.
  8. Hierarchy of controls.
  9. Working with occupational health and safety-related professions.

Learning Experience

ON-CAMPUS

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

JoondalupMount LawleySouth West (Bunbury)
Semester 113 x 3 hour seminarNot OfferedNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

ONLINE

Students will engage in learning experiences via ECU’s LMS as well as additional ECU learning technologies

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures, tutorials, online resources and case study discussions support student learning in this unit. Students will learn how to identify, classify and control different types of occupational hazards within workplaces and have the opportunity to exchange ideas to broaden understanding of risk in the workplace. This unit contains opportunities to engage with industry professionals through guest speakers to aid understanding of occupational health and safety matters. Fundamental written and oral communication skills will be developed to build competence in presenting Occupational Health and Safety information to diverse audiences.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
AssignmentOccupational Health and Safety History and Current Legal Framework30%
PresentationToolbox Talk30%
TestOnline Test40%
ONLINE
TypeDescriptionValue
AssignmentOccupational Health and Safety History and Current Legal Framework30%
PresentationToolbox Talk30%
TestOnline Test40%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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