Many business industries employ on-site physicians in order to aid with the employees healthcare. These doctors are known by many as occupational medicine doctors. Below is the information to read on about occupational medicine job description.
What is an occupational medicine?
An occupational medicine is the branch of occupational healthcare discipline that deals mainly on physical, social and mental security of the people in a certain workplace. Occupational doctors have a sound knowledge on hazards in the workplace and clinical medicine.
Duties of occupational medicine
- Occupational medicine deals on the prevention and treatment of injuries, illnesses and disabilities that are related to work. It promotes on both health along with the productivity of employees and families.
- Occupational medicine doctors address environmental and worksite concerns. They are responsible in tackling community health and health-related policy issues such as benefits and product safety value management.
- Occupational medicine involves most of the conventional medical areas like internal and family medicine, toxicology, surgery and preventive medicine.
- Occupational medicine also focuses on preventing diseases and treating illnesses and injuries present at the worksite level. The main duty is to guide and treat employees on all levels and make sure that occupational health and safety are well-maintained.
Conditions of work
- Occupational health physicians may work in collaboration with some healthcare professionals like psychologists, occupational nurses and officers in health and safety. Occupational medicine doctors are mostly employed by large business companies that offer various medical services and also in government agencies and universities.
- Occupational medicine doctors can also become researchers, clinical consultants and health educators which resulted in an increase demand for trained doctors in various private industries, schools and government agencies.
Educational Requirements
- The occupational medicine field encompasses family medicine, psychiatry, surgery, toxicology and epidemiology.
Occupational medicine candidates must first accomplish a 4 years medical training at any institution accredited by LCME or the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. - General requirements for admission in the medical school covers transcripts, admission test scores from the medical school and recommendation letters.
- Graduates who successfully accomplish their requirements and pass specific qualifying exams should enroll for residency program in medical fields such as surgery, general medicine, pediatrics and psychiatry. The residency program usually takes between 5 to 6 years to accomplish. Doctors who obtain residency training should meet all state-licensing requirements.
Occupation and Progress
The United States Bureau of Labor and Statistics expects a 26% growth in the employment rate of occupational medicine physicians through 2018. A field in medicine is still the leading career in achieving a well paying job and gain job security and job satisfaction.