Background Medical schools worldwide allocate little time and utilize varying formats in the teaching of occupational medicine (OM) to undergraduate medical students. Aims To identify undergraduate OM teaching formats and highlight key findings in these different methods. Methods A limited literature search conducted on PubMed and Scopus identified relevant articles published in English and between the years 2009 and 2018. Our inclusion criteria were papers containing the key words (‘occupational medicine’ AND (‘medical students’ OR ‘undergraduate medical’)) OR (‘occupational medicine’ AND (‘training’ OR ‘education’ OR ‘teaching’)) in the title or abstract and those that specifically discussed OM education. Results The literature search yielded 1479 papers. Seven of them fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were reviewed in full. Formats in OM education of undergraduate medical students include, either singly or in combination, the use of case studies, didactic sessions, workplace visits, text-based readings and pro forma. Conclusions OM education has a very small footprint in most undergraduate medical curricula. The studies show that different teaching formats are utilized, often in combination. Case-based discussions and workplace visits are frequently used with good qualitative results. Text-based readings will serve well to build good foundational knowledge, though there is no conclusive evidence that students will perform better.

Return to Work (RTW) programmes have become imperative in manpower scarce countries. This paper describes a RTW programme in a Singapore tertiary hospital, reports patient outcomes and discusses the practicality and effectiveness of the programme. Seventy-three workers participated in the programme over a two-year period. A statistically significant increase in work ability and self-perceived overall health status from first contact with worker (baseline) to discharge was observed. Continued programme participation till first RTW was associated with higher work ability and self-perceived overall health status at baseline. The RTW Coordinator-anchored multidisciplinary model which provided holistic support to the worker and addressed stakeholder interests were central to the programme's success. Greater awareness of RTW programme benefits will improve sustained participation. Our RTW programme features, implementation experiences and participant reported effectiveness may inform the development of improved return to work models.