Occupational Medicine

Occupational medicine is a specialized branch of clinical medicine that primarily focuses on occupational health. This specialty aims to optimize the well-being and health of workers, ensuring safety at the workplace.

Overview

An integral part of occupational health, Occupational health physicians, actively collaborate with a multidisciplinary occupational health team. This team comprises professionals such as:

• Occupational Health Nurses
• Industrial Hygienists
• Biostatisticians
• Public Health Specialists
• Biomedical Engineers, especially those with an emphasis on ergonomic principles.

In the United States, occupational medicine is one of the trio of medical specialties that fall under the purview of preventive medicine. The other two being aerospace medicine and public health & general preventive medicine. The American Board of Medical Specialties formally recognizes this specialty.

The core responsibility of this specialty is offering health advisories to both organizations and individuals. The goal is to uphold and maintain the highest standards of health and safety at workplaces. For this, occupational physicians need a profound understanding of clinical medicine and proficiency in numerous crucial areas.

Goals of Occupational Health

The primary objectives of occupational health encompass:

• Enhancing and upholding the utmost degree of physical, mental, and social well-being for workers across various professions.
• Preventing health issues among workers, which may arise due to their job conditions.
• Shielding workers from potential risks that could adversely impact their health during employment.
• Ensuring that the workplace is tailored to suit the physiological and psychological needs of the worker, ultimately focusing on aligning the job with the worker and vice versa.

Areas of Focus

Occupational Hazards to Health

Occupationally induced diseases and health complications are major contributors to global morbidity and mortality rates. Hence, it's imperative for the occupational health team to:

• Be cognizant of work hazards.
• Understand the methodologies to evaluate risks associated with specific workplaces.
• Know how to institute control measures.
• Recognize, treat, and manage work-related diseases when they arise.

Categorization of Work-Related Hazards (also termed as "Work Factors")

Workplace hazards can be segmented into the following categories:

• Physical Hazards: Encompassing factors like noise, temperature extremes, radiation, and vibrations.
• Chemical Hazards: Relating to exposure to harmful chemicals, including solvents, pesticides, and heavy metals.
• Biological Hazards: Arising from exposure to living organisms or their by-products.
• Ergonomic Hazards: Concerning the design and arrangement of the workplace and its potential physical impact on workers.
• Psychosocial Hazards: Addressing mental and emotional stressors at work, such as prolonged working hours, job insecurity, and workplace bullying.

Ensuring a safe and healthy working environment requires concerted efforts from employers, employees, and occupational health professionals. Through continuous evaluation, risk assessment, and interventions, occupational medicine plays a pivotal role in the global quest for safer workplaces.

In many countries the need of Occupational Health involvement in employment is backed up by legislation.

Examples of Occupational Health Hazards:

Physical work hazards

• Car accidents, Motor-vehicular accidents (MVA's)
• Ionizing radiation
• Sun Exposure (UVA and UVB rays)
• Heat Stress and dehydration
• Noise

Chemical work hazards

• Tobacco Smoke, smog, indoor air pollution
• Benzene
• Work-related carcinogens
• Aerosols, fumes, smoke
• Silicosis
• Asbestosis

Biological work hazards

• HIV/AIDS
• Tuberculosis
• Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B
• Hepatitis C

Ergonomic work hazards

• Lifting
• Pushing
• Pulling
• Materials management
• Musculoskeletal Disorders
• Repetitive Motion
• Vibration white finger

Psychosocial work hazards

• Work stress/strain
• Workload
• Autonomy
• Decision Lattitude
• Work safety climate
• Coping (psychology)
• Personality (also called personality preference or typology)
• Power (sociology) or power politics
• Gender
• Discrimination

Assessment of disability and fitness for work

No matter how good an individual's clinical treatment may be, if employees end up losing their job it has in part failed them. Assessment of an individual's fitness to carry out specific jobs, and their rehabilitation and return to work after illness is an important role of occupational physicians. These tasks can only be carried out by practitioners who have a detailed knowledge not only of human health, but also of the specific work situation.

Communications

The occupational physician is required to communicate with clinical colleagues responsible for the primary care of the workers, with other health professionals such as occupational hygienist (also called industrial hygienists), ergonomists and occupational health Nurses, active in the multi-disciplinary practice of occupational health, as well as with management, trade unions and staff representatives in the workplace.

Research

The workforce is the principal customer of occupational health research, carried out to increase knowledge on particular aspects of health hazards at work, or to ascertain the safety or otherwise of specific employment in a specific situation.

Occupational health law and ethics

Occupational physicians must be aware of the extensive health and safety legislation in some countries as it affects their practice, as well as ensuring that they maintain accepted ethical standards, particularly in relation to the medical confidentiality of data regarding individual workers.

Health promotion

The workplace can provide an ideal opportunity and environment to promote good health. The occupational physician must be able to organise, provide and evaluate health promotion programmes which meet the health needs of the specific workplace where they are being undertaken.

Management

Occupational physicians are doctors - yet their role demands more. As well as demonstrating competence in related issues, they must also be well versed in the principles and practice of business and financial management.

The environment

The environment protection act defines pollution in terms of harm to health. The occupational physician's role as health adviser to industry inevitably involves the doctor in the consideration of any environmental hazards emanating from the workplace. Of course there is great variation in the emphasis given to these aspects according to the nature of work, for example in the chemical field consideration of hazards to health may predominate, whereas say in the transport field fitness to work may be a more important concern. Modern employment patterns demand consideration of new employment hazards such as occupational stress, or health concerns like sedentary work.

See also

• Occupational therapy
• Occupational therapist
• Environmental Medicine

External links

• Case Studies in Environmental Medicine
• Society of Occupational Medicine UK
• American Board of Preventive Medicine USA
• American College of Preventive Medicine USA
• Occupational Health - MedlinePlus
• Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• American Association of Occupational Health Nurses

References

• Plog, B.A., Niland, J., & Quinlan, P.J. (2002). Fundamentals of Industrial Hygiene (5th ed.). Itasca, IL: National Safety Council.
• Levy, B.S. & Wegman, D.H. (2000). Occupational Health: Recognizing and Preventing Work-Related Disease and Injury (4th ed). Philadephia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
• LaDou, J. (2004). Current Occupational & Environmental Medicine (3rd ed.). New York: Lange/McGraw-Hill.
• Rogers, B. (1994). Occupational Health Nursing: Concepts and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders.

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