INTRODUCTION

Workers at office work environment are related to ergonomic hazards. An ergonomic

hazard is a physical factor that harms the musculoskeletal system such as muscles, tendons,
nerves, joints, spinal discs and other tissues. When a part of this system gets injured at
particular workplace hazards it is called a Musculoskeletal Disorder or MSD (M. Sonne 2012).
Many industries have successfully implemented ergonomic solutions in their facilities as a way
to inform their workers' MSD injury risks. These interventions have included modifying existing
equipment, making changes in work practices, ROSA and purchasing new tools or other
devices. Although ergonomics is a large field, the main areas need to be highlighted for
workplaces and employees will often relate to workstations (sitting and standing), computer
systems, noise, lighting, thermal comfort and maintenance tasks performed (Australian
Government Comcare 2014).

The Rapid Office Strain Assessment (ROSA) was constructed to assist in quantifying
risk associated with chair, monitor, telephone, keyboard and mouse as well as including an
action level for change based on referring to worker discomfort reports (Ergon 2012). ROSA is a
diagrammatic posture checklist which designed to quantify the exposure to risk in an office work
environment. Constructed after other picture based checklist and chart scoring system such as
RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) and REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) (Sonne
2010). The risk factors and ideal postures identified using the CSA Standards on Office
Ergonomics (CSA Z412) (M. Sonne 2012).The objective of the ROSA process is to serve as a
screening tool to identify areas of priority in large office based organizations.

The risk factors were illustrated and coded as increasing scores from 1 to 3. ROSA final
scores ranged in magnitude from 1 to 10, with each successive score representing an increased
presence of risk factors. A ROSA final score of 5 therefore is useful as an action level indicating
when immediate change is necessary (Ergon 2012). The assessor will take a paper or
electronic version of the ROSA score sheet with them during an assessment. Besides that,
selecting particular postures to be observed and records the durations that are reported by the
person that being assessed. A research has shown a correlation between discomfort levels and
increasing ROSA scores. Scores of greater than 5 are deemed to be “high risk” and the
workstation should be assessed further for improvement in safety management. ROSA proved
to be an effective and reliable method for identifying risk factors related to discomfort (M. Sonne
2012).
REFERENCES

Australian Government Comcare. Egronomic Hazards. April 2, 2014.

https://www.comcare.gov.au/preventing/hazards/ergonomic_hazards (accessed
September 4, 2017).

Ergon, Appl. Development and evaluation of an office ergonomic risk checklist: ROSA--rapid
office strain assessment. Rockville: PubMed, 2012.

Sonne, Michael. "ROSA – Rapid Office Strain Assessment." ROSA. 2010.

http://leadergonomics.com/rosa/session/rosainstruction.php (accessed September 4,
2017).

Sonne, Mike. "ErgoTools: Desktop and Mobile Applications for MSD." Occupational Health
Clinics for Ontario Workers Inc. 2012.
http://www.ohcow.on.ca/edit/files/presentations/rsi_day/2__ergotools_full_slide.pdf
(accessed September 4, 2017).