Total quality strategy in the formative process of the occupational physician

Interest in applying the concepts of total quality management to the fields of health care and medical education is growing. This paper analyzes the f ield of education in occupational medicine to explore the relationships bet ween teaching and the deliverance of a product or a service. Issues such as defining teaching customers, addressing customer needs, teaching processes , and assessing and improving quality teaching are described. The occupatio nal physician is requested to act according to particular competencies. Thi s demand implies the need to meet specific requirements. To assure the achi evement of these goals, the implementation of a teaching process must inclu de (i) targeting the learning objectives (the knowledge, skills, and attitu des the specialist should have), (ii) planning the evaluation system (abili ty of the course to assure the achievement of the objective), (iii) evaluat ing the curriculum (compliance of the acquired competencies to the needs).