Professional activity, information demands, training and updating needs of occupational medicine physicians in Italy: National survey

Abstract

Objectives: Occupational medicine is a discipline continually evolving in response to technological advances, changes in workplaces and production processes, emergence of new occupational risks and diseases and modifications in regulatory framework for occupational health and safety. Therefore, the recurrent revaluation of professional activity, information demands and education and training needs of occupational physicians is essential in order to identify methodologies and tools that may contribute to improvement of their professional knowledge and competency. In this regard, we conducted the first large-scale national survey of Italian occupational medicine physicians to define their demographic and professional activity and to assess their information demands, training and updating needs. Material and Methods: A random sample of occupational physicians, listed in the national register of the Italian Ministry of Health, was selected to complete a voluntary survey. Subjects recruited in this study were asked to complete 3 different sections (personal and professional information, training and updating needs, professional activity and practice characteristics) of a questionnaire for a total of 35 questions. Results: Most of participants were specialized in occupational medicine, worked for a large number of companies and carried out health surveillance on a total number of workers that exceeds 1500. Occupational physicians would like to have a higher training offer towards practical aspects of health surveillance, risks assessment, manual handling of loads, chemical substances and upper limb biomechanical overload. Interestingly, statistically significant differences were observed subdividing the sample into different groups according to the legal requirements to perform the professional activity of occupational physicians in Italy or according to particular aspects of their professional activity. Conclusions: This study has provided interesting findings that may help to guide future discussion on alternative and additional instruments and/or methodologies that may be adopted to implement the quality and effectiveness of occupational medicine practice. and professional certification processes [11], to address learning outcomes for higher specialist training within the framework of the OM [6], to influence the organization and structure of service delivery [16], to inform policy decisions and then, ultimately, to fill the gap between "what the OM is" and "what it should be" [11,16]. In this context, using a self-administered questionnaire, we conducted the first large-scale national survey of Italian OPs to gather data regarding their professional activity, information demands and training and updating needs. The aim of this study, highlighting the current problems of Italian OPs, has been to gain helpful information to define, develop and implement management methodologies, operative procedures and training programs that are useful and timely in improving the quality and effectiveness of the OM practice...

Consideration of psychosocial factors in workplace risk assessments: findings from a company survey in Germany

“…However, it must be considered that according to our survey data, a great number of companies do not make any use of professional OSH consultants, or, if they do, are still quite often dealing with OSH specialists who have little expertise in psychosocial risk prevention and show rather low attention to that issue in their daily practice. The latter is certainly true for safety engineers (Hamacher et al 2013; Leitão and Greiner 2017), whereas findings for occupational physicians are more mixed (Harber et al 2010; Persechino et al 2016). Overall, the potential benefits of OSH specialist assistance for promoting psychosocial risk assessments still seem far from being fully exploited.…”

Gender differences and occupational factors for the risk of obesity in the Italian working population

“…Workplaces should be considered in all respects potential obesogenic environments since they can directly affect weight-related behaviors and the lifestyles of workers while at the same time exposing them to occupational risk factors that can have a significant impact on the physiology of the human body [20][21][22][23]. For example, scientific progress and technological innovation have greatly influenced the labor market, leading to increased levels of computerization, automation and mechanization [21,24,25]. These changes have modified the types of task in which workers are involved, reducing strenuous heavy work while increasing sedentary jobs [26][27][28].…”

Comparative study on the activities of part-time occupational physicians in Japan between 2008 and 2016: effects of the stress-check program

“…The report of Japan Medical Association 22) In 2016, majority of OP felt difficulty in SC-related issues, especially in interview with high-stress employees ( Table 5). In many countries, mental health-related issues are one of the main targets of OH activities 14,27) . In / 23 Japan, a questionnaire survey for OPs belonging to an enterprise or OH service organization (that may mean full-time OP) showed that 86% of OPs felt employers' high expectation for mental health related activities as well 28) .…”

“…Reports on the activities and job demand of OPs have been published 7 / 7 by several research groups [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] as well as by a number of regional occupational health promotion centers [16][17][18] . Nevertheless, there are no currently available reports on the difficulties experienced by private clinicor hospital-based part-time OPs in their daily OHS or that evaluate the time spent by OPs in various OHS activities except for Moriguchi et al 19) .…”