Journal Article Critique: A Case Study of Athletic Training at the Kennedy Space Center

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A Case Study of Athletic Training

at the Kennedy Space Center

Part I: About this Article

            This article examines treatment of musculoskeletal disorders on-site at the Kennedy Space Center. Musculoskeletal injuries are the most common work-related injuries at the Kennedy Space Center, so they developed an on-site clinic for their employees to save both costs and time. This research is both recent and timely. It was published in 2003, and is of a topic that is likely of current interest to many employers. This was a worthwhile problem to examine, as this case may serve as motivation or inspiration for other employers to develop similar cost-saving rehabilitation programs. However, there are likely only a few employers with enough physically active employees working in the same location. A smaller employer would probably find that an on-site rehabilitation program would not be cost effective.

            This is a qualitative case study. It examines a a single entity, the Kennedy Space Center, with relation to how it deals with a specific problem, musculoskeletal disorders. It examines the problem in detail, without comparing it to any other cases.

Part II: The Critique

            This article does not include a traditional literature review. Instead, it includes some general information about musculoskeletal disorders and how their treatment can impact workplaces. The background information would be better if it included information about studies that are related to this article. The general information provided was, however, enough to provide an adequate understanding of the topic for reading the article.

            Since this article was a case study, the sample size was one entity, the Kennedy Space Center. The information from this article could only be generalized to another entity that was nearly identical to the Kennedy Space Center and was interested in running a substantially similar rehabilitation program. The sampling could have been improved by increasing the sample size to include other organizations that have in-house rehabilitation programs for musculoskeletal disorders.

            The researcher is the person who designed and supervises the rehabilitation program. The researcher used her personal knowledge of the working of the program along with qualitative analysis of records that the program keeps. This method of data gathering is appropriate for a case study, but it would be better if an impartial third party had preformed the research.

            The research method of this study was data gathering by the researcher. A case study requires a close familiarity between the researcher and the object of the case, so the researchers familiarity with the organization was beneficial in this sense. There is a threat to internal validity because the researcher is so closely involved with the program and organization. Her opinions may be biased because of her associations.

            This qualitative descriptive research was organized into a section on background on musculoskeletal injuries in the workplace , a section on how this applied to the Kennedy Space Center, and a section about how the different segments of the program interact from start to finish.

            The conclusion of this case study relates the estimated cost savings for the Kennedy Space Center. The researcher estimates a savings of $1.4 million on rehabilitation fees alone, with additional savings from the time not spent driving to therapy. This conclusion seems valid as applied to the Kennedy Space Center.

Part III – My Reflections

            This is an excellent case-study of the rehabilitation program at the Kennedy Space Center. It provides a good overview of the need for the rehabilitation program, and of how the program works. The case study could benefit from a more impartial author, but the expertise of the author being the designer and coordinator of the program means that a deeper level of description is reached. There is not enough specific information that this article could be used to develop a similar program, but it could prompt an interested party to ask the Kennedy Space Center for more information. If I was working for a large outdoor education organization like the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), I would consider evaluating employee work-related injuries to determine if some sort of in-house rehabilitation program could be cost effective.

References

Kirkland, M. K. (2003, May). A case study of athletic training at the kennedy space center [Electronic     Version]. Athletic Therapy Today, 9-12.