Resident Training Program, National Taiwan University Hospital Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine
- Purpose of training
- To help the trainees setup their career goal of endeavoring on working people and occupational injury and disease prevention and health promotion.
- To equip trainees with capabilities of recognizing and managing occupational and environmental hazards.
- To cultivate the future board certified occupational physician to have spirits of cooperation with other specialists and vision of creating a sustainable & healthy environment for the working people.
- Aims
- Ethical: through the training process with justice to recognize the various workplace hazards, treat the relationship between patients and employers fairly, and to have belief in protecting the best benefit of employee's health
- Expertise: through series of interdisciplinary learning, offer knowledge and skills of holistic and occupational health care, and update in parallel with contemporary industrial progress.
- Social responsibility: to serve the workers’ occupational health in factory, company or various jobs, as well as to bridge between employee, employer, and government to ensure subsequent good productivity follows in the society as a whole.
- Trainee qualification
- College graduates with bachelor degree in medicine (including dental and Chinese medicine), who is interested in occupational and environmental medicine, through formal recruiting process could be enrolled as first year resident in this hospital, and after three years training the certificate will be issued by the hospital.
- Physicians who had completed residency training in other specialty could take part-time to participate in OM specialist training program. When all needed credits are completed, a certified document will be issued by the Taiwan Environmental and Occupational Medicine Association
Both categories of trainee with certificate of complete training get the qualification for applying for the occupational medicine specialist board examination held annually.
- Period of training:
According to the 「guideline of training for board certified occupational physician」announced by DOH, the training course should include:
(I) first year:
The trainees have to complete PGY-1 course, which consist of half year accreditation course as follows: hospitalization patient care training in internal medicine (3 months), surgical department (1 month), and community medicine (2 months), the course may waiver if trainee presenting PGY-1 certificate; half year holistic care learning (currently includes ER, ICU, OEM related clinics training etc.), this course was designed and content adjusted according to training hospital, for example, in the ER rotation the trainee serve as the first-liner and in ICU as a second-liner.
(II) Second and third year:
(1) Rotation training in following specialists clinics:
dermatology & neurology (compulsory), physical medicine and rehabilitation, chest medicine, toxicology, hepatology, otolaryngology and orthopedics for a total of 3~5 months. In each department the trainee was encouraged to conduct surveillance of suspected occupational disease/injury cases during these periods. They may also refer these cases to OEM clinics so that detailed follow up may be ensued simultaneously.
(2) Practice of occupational medicine in industry:
It includes service as a part-time consultant physician in factory clinics, to learn how to do consultation for the workers or health problem, either occupation or non-occupation related in the workplace. Return to work or disability evaluation after occupational injury or disease, fitness of workers health reviewing of health screening report, workplace hazard assessment, community environmental health are also stressed. The trainee has to serve at least a 200 people company as a part-time physician, and to join the OSH committee conference (4 times), offering occupational health or industrial hygiene education (5 times) and occupational health or OSH evaluations (4 times). In the meantime, the trainee also has to have 10 other different site visit experiences, and to participate in field sampling and chemical analysis. The trainee also has to respond consultation questions from outside (20 times). The course may spend 6~ 8 months.
(3) Clinical occupational training:
It consists of 8~12 months in OEM clinics (full time resident have to take at least 4 clinic duties per week), learning to interview of patients with suspected occupational diseases and applying five major principles of occupational disease diagnosis among various kinds, or managing occupational injury workers through the integration of prevention, compensation and return to work assistance. The trainee have to perform health screening for workers with specific occupational hazard, answering ER and ward consultation, and attending weekly meeting and monthly case discussion. The trainees have to present before audience in Chinese (>4 times) as well as in English (>2 times). On line reporting to the national occupational injury and disease surveillance system is also requested in the training. Other special clinical training course includes pulmonary function test, pneumoconiosis chest X ray reading, skin patch test, nerve conduction and electromyography, neurobehavioral test, blood lead and urine hippuric acid measurement, toxic substance screening and hearing examinations, at least 33 hours.
(4) Basic occupational medicine education courses:
The trainee has to receive at least 12 credits of core basic courses, including toxicology, industrial hygiene, biostatistics, epidemiology, occupational and occupational medicine (introduction and special topics discussion), occupational health management or occupational disease case discussion etc, each credit equals 18 hours of lecture or practice. These courses currently were mostly offered by teacher from the graduate institute.
(5) Research:
The trainee was requested to practice research using various methods to analyze the occupational hazard or health, and submit one research report. The trainee is even encouraged to attend postgraduate school and join the master course in the occupational medicine and Industrial hygiene institute, which belong to the college of public health. In the latter case, the trainee will have dual benefits of completion of the training requirements and obtaining diploma of master degree at the same time, however, the duration of residency training may be extended for longer.