The Daily Schedule Of An Occupational Health Practitioner

Occupational medicine is a medical specialty where training is focused on diagnosing, preventing and managing occupational related diseases and conditions as well as maintaining adequate health in workers.

Occupational health practitioners (OHPs) are doctors who specialise in occupational medicine. The duties of theses specialists are to promote wellness and prevent diseases among workers. OHPs, therefore, need to have adequate knowledge in the following areas:

• To be able to evaluate the employees' fitness for work and diagnose and treat occupational injuries and diseases.
• Awareness of potential hazards in the work environment including toxic materials and properties that are used.
• Must be able to manage health service delivery.
• Know about health educations and rehabilitation methods.
• Know about government laws and regulations regarding workplace health.

Training

In order to take up a specialty position, a doctor must first complete their undergraduate studies. This is the medical and surgical degree that takes 5-6 years to complete, depending on which country you live in. Once the undergraduate degree is obtained, a newly qualified doctor must complete their internship training, which is 1-2 years.

Thereafter, a doctor may apply for an occupational medicine post at an institution that offers this residency programme. If a doctor's application is successful, they will then be invited to take up the specialist position which takes 2 years to complete.

The Responsibilities of an Occupational Health Practitioner

The following are the responsibilities of an OHP when they are involved in different roles in the workplace.

As an employer they must:

• Perform every reasonable duty to protect workers from getting a work-related illness or being hurt.
• Appoint a competent and reliable individual to be a supervisor, as defined by the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA).
• Make sure workers know about dangers and hazards by providing them with supervision, instruction and information on how to work safely.
• Create workplace health and safety procedures and policies where more than five workers are regularly employed.
• Make sure supervisors know what is required to protect workers’ health and safety on the job.
• To have the workers select a worker health and safety representative (HSR) or establish a joint health and safety committee (JHSC) in order to help them carry out their duties under the OHSA.
• Make sure everyone abides by the workplace health and safety procedures and policies.
• Make sure that workers use and wear the correct and appropriate protective gear and equipment.
• Make sure that employees' protective devices, material and equipment are well maintained and in good working condition.
• Comply with applicable reporting requirements according to legislation.

As a supervisor they must:

• As an employer would do, make sure that every reasonable action has been taken to protect workers from getting a work-related illness or being hurt. 
• Make sure workers use and wear the appropriate protective gear and equipment.
• Make workers aware about the dangers and hazards in the workplace and respond to any of their concerns.
• Make sure workers follow the law and workplace health and safety procedures and policies.
• Show workers how to work safely. 

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As an employee, they must:

• Act and work in a way that won’t hurt themselves or anyone else in the workplace.
• Wear and use the protective equipment required by their employer.
• Report any injuries to themselves or other employees to their employer/supervisor.
• Report any potential hazards to their employer/supervisor..
• Comply with the OHSA and its regulations.
• Comply with their workplace’s health and safety procedures and policies.

The Daily Schedule Of An Occupational Health Practitioner

The occupational health practitioner (OHP) will work either in a private office where patients will be sent to them by employers, or they will be employed by companies such as mines, construction companies and steel work companies to manage their employees' health needs.

The services that an OHP provides can be limited to seeing employees who are acutely ill and then managing them appropriately (these patients are seen whenever they complain of an illness), or it can involve providing a full service. This would include examining potential employees to rule out any acute of chronic problems, doing employee physicals to make sure that they are healthy enough to perform the work required of them, follow up physicals and consultations and management of any chronic conditions.

For the purposes of this articles, we shall discuss the schedule of an OHP who is employed by a company.

Mondays

The OHP will see potential new employees in order to determine whether they are fit enough to perform the work required by the particular employer, and to exclude any acute or chronic illnesses which may be aggravated or worsened by exposure to the workplace. 

The consultation will include taking a proper history from the patient and performing a clinical examination. The important investigations that will be done here include taking an ECG, chest X-ray (especially in employees who will be working in mines), performing hearing tests (especially in employees who will be working in factories that produce high levels of noise) and vision tests (very important in employees who will be drivers). Drug screening tests are also performed on consenting employees if instructed to do so by the company.

Acutely ill patients of those having suffered minor injuries are seen and managed by the OHP on a daily basis. Worksman's Compensation forms then need to be filled out and the employees are followed up accordingly. Any major injuries would need to be referred for specialist intervention.

Tuesday

This day will be reserved for performing yearly follow up examinations on employees that are in the company's current employ. This would include performing follow up clinical examinations and investigations, as mentioned above.

Comparisons are then made regarding the OHPs findings. If there are any significant changes, then these need to be managed appropriately, which may mean that the employee needs to be referred for further investigations or management. 

Any health related changes that are deemed to be due to exposure to the work environment need to be discussed with the management of the company. This may mean that employees may need to be compensated for these issues.

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Wednesday

This day usually revolves around the OHP drafting policy and procedure requirements as well as attending meetings. These policies are important for health and safety in the workplace and need to be discussed with the management of the company.

Thursday

The OHP will continue seeing employees either as acute patients or to follow them up.

Friday

Any administrative issues are usually resolved on a Friday. Health and safety reports on employees are updated or finalised on this day. 

An OHP may have to make themselves available for any staff who require medical help after hours and on weekend.