The west virginia occupational safety and health initiative - Practicum training for a new marketplace

Context: Occupational medicine practice has experienced a shift from larger corporate medical departments to organizations providing services for a va riety of industries. Specific training needs will accompany this shift in p ractice patterns; these may differ from those developed in the traditional industrial or corporate medical department setting. Methods: The West Virginia Occupational Health and Safety Initiative involv es occupational medicine residents in consultation to a variety of small in dustries and businesses. It uses the expertise of occupational physicians, health and safety extension faculty, and faculty in engineering and industr ial hygiene. Residents participate in multidisciplinary evaluations of work sites, and develop competencies in team-building, workplace health and safe ty evaluation, and occupational medical consulting. Outcome Measures: Specific competencies that address requirements for pract icum training are used to measure the trainee's acquisition of knowledge an d skills. Particular attention is paid to the acquisition of group problem- solving expertise, skills relevant to the current market in practice opport unities, and the specific career interests of the resident physician. Preli minary evaluation indicates the usefulness of training in evaluation of div erse industries and worksites. Conclusions: We offer this program as a training model that can prepare res idents for the challenges of a changing marketplace for occupational health and safety services, (C) 1999 American Journal of Preventive Medicine.