History and development of training in occupational medicine

Abstract

After a reminder of the wide scope of the subject of occupational medicine, the issues of training are described as set in a context of societal and professional development. Undergraduate training will be touched on, referring to experiences from the UK. In discussing the training of specialists in occupational medicine, reference is made to experiences gained in Norway. The implications for training and education, occasioned by major changes in roles and tasks of the occupational medicine professionals, will be commented on while observing developments in the Netherlands. The links between training and the need for competencies in the real-life context of a health market will be touched on. After a short reminder of the European aspects of occupational medicine specialist training, attention is directed towards the extreme patchwork nature, amounting to absence in important aspects, of documentation of the history of the development of training and education in occupational medicine. This also applies to the evaluations of strategies aiming at change and development of programmes for vocational training on undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels, including programmes for sustaining competencies and competence development.