NUIG Students' Attitudes & Knowledge of Fire Safety: Analysis

Background

Fire is a word with serious meaning. Essentially there are three elements that are required for a fire to take place. A Fuel source, heat to cause ignition and oxygen, without one of these elements fire cannot occur. These 3 conditions are referred to as the fire triangle (Pentapati, Purayil & Kukkamalla, 2015). A fire can be extinguished by removing one of the elements. Three methods for fire extinguishing are starvation (removing fuel), Cooling (Removing heat) and Blanketing (Removing oxygen).

Fire can cause serious damage and destruction to both human life and property. “The outbreak of fire pose a significant threat to all persons within a building and it can have serious financial and psychological implications” (Yeturu, Annapurani, Janakiram, Joseph & Pentapati, 2016). Fire safety is an essential requirement in new buildings and infrastructure planning. Provisions such as emergency exits, all types of fire extinguishers, assemble point, emergency lighting, and fire hydrant system are all mandatory in buildings.

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There are five main categories of fire, Class A (Wood, Paper or Textiles fires), Class B (Flammable liquid fires, such as petrol, diesel, oils), Class C (Gas fires ), Class D (Metal fires) and Class E (Live electrical fires). There are 4 main types of fire extinguishers, water, dry powder, foam and oxygen, depending on the class of fire one of these types will be chosen.

Fire alarms should be checked regularly and frequent mock fire drills carried out to ensure that everyone is familiar with safety and evacuation procedures.

The Research Question

What are the attitudes of NUIG students to and their knowledge of fire safety guidelines?

A case study on students attitudes to and knowledge of fire safety guidelines.

Research aim and objectives

A review of NUIG students’ attitudes to and knowledge of fire safety guidelines.

The aim of this research proposal is to assess the attitude and knowledge of undergrad and postgraduate students towards fire safety and guidelines among NUI Galway students. The objective of this proposal is to determine the extent of NUIG students’ knowledge towards fire safety guideline, while also to examine their attitudes towards fire safety.

Overall design and methods

A mixed Methods approach will be utilized to collect the appropriate data. A mixed methods approach is “increasingly recognized as valuable, because they can capitalize on the respective strengths of ( the quantitative and qualitative ) approach, generating more complete data” (Curry, Nembhard & Bradley, 2009). Online surveys are useful for accumulating an extensive quantitative summary this ensures a broad range of statistical evidence is used with the qualitive approach to ensure more accurate findings.

Interviews gives this research proposal a qualitative approach. Interviews cannot be conducted on such an extensive scales like online surveys due to time restraints but interviews provide details for “understanding the phenomenon from the perspectives of the study participants” (Curry, Nembhard & Bradley, 2009).

Proposed sample

For the online survey the proposed samples size is 50 NUI Galway students. The prosed sample size for the interviews are 6 - 8 NUI Galway students. Both samples will be achieved via volunteer approach, however a snowballing approach will be used to ensure the sample size is achieved for the interviews.

Data collection

The survey will be created on google forms it will be an anonymous survey. It will be posted to the NUIG Health and Safety Facebook page as well as other disciplines' Facebook pages. In order to ensure the proposed sample size is acquired students will be invited to comment “Completed” under the survey link to be in with a chance to win a prize ( E.g. A voucher). Online data is “An efficient and convenient alternative to the more traditional method of gathering information” (Lefever, Dal & Matthíasdóttir, 2007). Traditional data collection is limited by participants time and location in contrast to this, online surveys can be completed at anytime and anywhere (Lefever, Dal & Matthíasdóttir, 2007). Similar to the surveys an add will be placed on NUI Galway disciplines Facebook pages in addition to this an add will be placed on campus notice boards. This volunteer sample approach ensures that little amount of time is spent finding people who satisfied the proposed sample (Sadler, Lee, Lim & Fullerton, 2010). A snowballing approach will also be used to gather interviewees. Snowball sampling method is efficient, cost - effective and convenient in qualitative research (Noy, 2008).

Data analyses

Data gathered from the online surveys will be analysed by google forms. The interviews will be semi-structed interviews. They will consist of open ended questions. Responses of interviewees will be recorded and transcribed. A thematic approach will be utilised to code data gathered from the interviews. Thematic “analysis reports the patterns within data” (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Coding data is a process that identifies underlying pieces of data and appropriately categorises the data into specific themes (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006).

Bibliography

1. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research In Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. doi: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
2. Curry, L., Nembhard, I., & Bradley, E. (2009). Qualitative and Mixed Methods Provide Unique Contributions to Outcomes Research. Circulation, 119(10), 1442-1452. doi: 10.1161/circulationaha.107.742775
3. Fereday, J., & Muir-Cochrane, E. (2006). Demonstrating Rigor Using Thematic Analysis: A Hybrid Approach of Inductive and Deductive Coding and Theme Development. International Journal Of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 80-92. doi: 10.1177/160940690600500107
4. Lefever, S., Dal, M., & Matthíasdóttir, Á. (2007). Online data collection in academic research: advantages and limitations. British Journal Of Educational Technology, 38(4), 574-582. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2006.00638.x
5. Mc Kimmie, BM, Jimmieson NL, Mathews R, Moffat K. Social support and fires in the workplace: a preliminary investigation. Work 2009;32:59-68.
6. Noy, C. (2008). Sampling Knowledge: The Hermeneutics of Snowball Sampling in Qualitative Research. International Journal Of Social Research Methodology, 11(4), 327-344. doi: 10.1080/13645570701401305
7. Sadler, G., Lee, H., Lim, R., & Fullerton, J. (2010). Research Article: Recruitment of hard-to-reach population subgroups via adaptations of the snowball sampling strategy. Nursing & Health Sciences, 12(3), 369-374. doi: 10.1111/j.1442-2018.2010.00541.x
8. Pentapati, K., Purayil, T., & Kukkamalla, M. (2015). Fire safety in dental clinics: Basics for dentists and dental students. Journal Of Dental Research And Review, 2(2), 102. doi: 10.4103/2348-2915.161217