Solution
Somprikta answered on
Oct 29 2021
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH OFFICER
Table of Contents
Introduction and Overview 3
Similarities and Differences 4
Key Learnings 6
Overall Summary 9
References 10
Introduction and Overview
Environmental health officers are one of the most important professionals who are responsible for maintaining the overall conditions of the different aspects of the environment. They are also the professionals who take the responsibility of making the general people and businessmen follow the rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and legislation associated with environmental health. They prepare the ground for ca
ying out the measures of protecting public health across society. They have a plethora of roles and responsibilities which they adhere to, to maintain an environment that is sustainable for individuals and the general population to survive. In this particular report, two interviews have been collected to reflect upon them. In this particular report, both the interviews will be assessed as well as analysed to understand the roles and responsibilities of the environmental health officers. The interviews will help us get a comprehensive as well as realistic notion of the real work of the environmental health officers as well as how they perform their roles and functions.
The interview was a
anged in the form of a zoom interview. Given the cu
ent condition of the global pandemic, it is difficult to a
ange for a face-to-face interview. Therefore, this zoom interview seemed more feasible to both the interviewees as well as me. I received the contacts of the environmental health officers from one of my family relatives. To elaborate on this a little bit, I received the contact number of interviewee 2 from my uncle. I asked him whether he would like to give me an interview about his job, roles, and responsibilities. To this, he happily agreed. For the second interview, I asked him only, and he gave me, the number of the other interviewee. I contacted her and asked her if she would like to share her experiences of being an environmental health officer with me, to which she too, happily agreed.
After mutually agreeing to the decision of conducting an interview, we decided on the type of interview. Although initially, we were thinking of face to face interview, interviewee 1 suggested that it is better to opt for a zoom interview rather than a face-to-face one, considering the safety issues for the ongoing pandemic. After this talk with interviewee 1, I discussed this with interviewee 2, to which he readily agreed. Nowadays, zoom interviews have become extremely common because of the given situation. Before conducting the interviews, I made sure that I can gather a certain amount of information and details about their backgrounds as well as their jobs. Interviewer 1 was a female environmental health officer with a working experience of 20 years. She has mostly worked part-time as well as based on short contracts for the different councils. However, the other interviewee, that is, interviewee 2, was a male environmental health officer who has been in this field for the past 10 years and has been working in the council full time.
Both of the interviewees have worked in different areas. As it is probably known, environmental field officers are expected to work in several areas, which are inclusive of noise, food hygiene, safety and precautions, air pollution, water pollution, septic tank, and so on. The environmental health officers are also expected to investigate different kinds of incidents that are associated with toxic contamination, pest infestation, and an out
eak of food poisoning. The main roles of an environmental health officer are inclusive of inspecting the different premises, collecting the evidence from those premises, and providing advice based on that. They can also charge fines based on problematic situations of unhygienic incidences. The several other responsibilities of the interviewees include advising the employers about the different issues associated with environmental health, compiling the reports associated with the inspections, delivering training, investigating the different kinds of complaints. Other than these responsibilities, the interviewees also serve other roles, which are inclusive of, serving legal notices, providing evidence in court, and liaising with the different organisations.
The environmental health officers whom I have interviewed in both the interviews have served all the responsibilities, as mentioned in the previous few sections. They have worked for several councils, be it part-time or full-time. Therefore, they have a fair bit of experience regarding the roles and responsibilities of an environmental health officer. Their long intertwining with the profession has deepened their understanding of the same. As a result of this, they have been able to understand the nuances of the profession, as well as how the profession has proven to be beneficial for them. In the interviews, they have shared their personal opinions about the overall experiences of an environmental health officer as well as the general encounters that they tend to come across.
Similarities and Differences
In the interview, there were several questions regarding their activities, such as for interviewee 2, I had asked the question, "Any recent activity or experience?". To this, the interviewee replied that his basic task is to check the different businesses and see the ones that they approve and the ones that they do not approve. For this purpose, they visit and revisit the policies and review the procedures to check whether the businesses adhere to the requirements of the different policies and procedures. The basic notion of checking and reviewing the policies and procedures is to see whether the business is posing any kind of risk to the environment or is it safe for the same. If it is safe for the environment and ensures the latter's wellbeing, then the business is good to go. The environmental health officers give a green signal and the...