With millions of employees suddenly working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, kitchen tables, spare rooms, and couches have become improvised offices. That means workers are not only contending with health and financial worries, but also stressors like cramped quarters, uncomfortable work spaces, and social isolation.

But take heart — University of Iowa graduate students enrolled in the course “Occupational Safety” are available to help provide expert safety advice for those working at home.

Renée Anthony, professor of occupational and environmental health, teaches the class. As part of their coursework, students normally consult on-site with local small businesses and provide recommendations that address concerns such as fire safety, hearing protection, and trip and fall hazards. This semester, the class abruptly had to pivot its approach as many area employers curtailed normal business activities and the University of Iowa moved to online classes in response to the novel coronavirus.

“We had to think creatively, and now the students’ class projects are focused on developing safety recommendations and materials for people working at home,” says Anthony.

Laura Tvedte, a second-year master’s student in the industrial hygiene program in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, is enrolled in the Occupational Safety class. She’s currently back in her hometown of West Branch, Iowa.

“It’s been an interesting transition to virtual classes, but I think that my classmates and I have been handling it well,” she says. “It is a new method of learning, which is a challenge at times, but with the assistance of our professors, we’re working through it well.”

Taking classes remotely is giving Tvedte insight into what others are experiencing while working from home.

“I personally have been working on managing ergonomic and mental health issues; not having a proper work station set up is a challenge for me, and it’s difficult to not see people and be socially isolated,” she says. “These are some of the areas that our team will be addressing, along with chemical safety, electrical safety, and helping essential workers.”

The class has created a website, https://occsafety.course.uiowa.edu/, that will house safety materials on a variety of topics. The class is also accepting safety questions about working from home, which can be submitted to workfromhome.occsafety@gmail.com.

Tvedte encourages people to submit questions. “We would be very interested in getting input from the College of Public Health community on topics they are interested in about working from home,” she says.