Specialist training in occupational medicine

Subject: This paper is concerned with specialist training in occupational medicine in a context of the changing world of work and evolving occupational health practice.

Objective and structure: An overview of the focus of training and required competencies. The content of training builds on the historical syllabus to include new and emerging health problems, such as stress and pandemic influenza set against demographic and public health developments. A new curriculum is presented with a discussion of the selection of core competencies, models of learning and methods of assessment. The importance of promoting professionalism and the development of metacompetencies is highlighted.

Conclusions: Optimism for training in occupational medicine appears to be a cyclical phenomenon and there is a lack of consensus about the role of the occupational physician which has hindered attempts to adopt an evidence-based approach to training. The choice of core competencies requires an input from different stakeholders in occupational health, including employers. The combination of summative and formative assessment will help to measure achievement of learning outcomes that are relevant to future performance. Awareness of the role of metacompetencies in the preparation for continuing professional development is key to the long-term success of training.