Transcript MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH IN TRAINING OF …

MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH IN
TRAINING OF OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Prof. Dr. Raphael Masschelein
Occupational, Environmental and Insurance
Medicine
K.U. Leuven, Belgium
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Multidisciplinarity in training of occupational
health professionals
1. Introduction
2. The shift from monodisciplinary services to
multidisciplinary OHS (EU 89/391
3. What professional competencies are needed in
response to the demands?
4. Multidisciplinary training as a response to the
new demands
5. How does multidisciplinarity functions on the
floor?
6. Conclusion: An outcome based evaluation of
the multidisciplinary model
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1. Introduction
• The concept of multidisciplinarity
– Multidisciplinarity
• Involving different disciplines
• Involving different subspecialism within one
discipline (e.g. medicine)
– Interdisciplinarity
– Multiprofessional collaboration
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2. Multidisciplinarity as a response to new
developments in OHS
• Charges in organisational needs and demands in the
labour world
• Limitations of the former monodisciplinary services of
occupational medicine and occupational safety
• Shift in prevalency of work related health and safety
risks: decreasing traditional work pathology and
increasing psychosocial and multicausal health
complaints
• Changes in the needs and demands of the workers and
employers
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EU Directive 89/391
• Transformation of monodisciplinary
services towards multidisciplinary services
• Introduction of new disciplines in the field
of OHS
– To increase the efficienty and the quality of the
services to the empoloyer and the workers
– To respond to the changing needs
– To limit the impact of medicalisation(?)
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3. What professional competencies are
required? (1)
• The competencies needed to guarantee a sufficient
protection of the health, safety and wellbeing of the
workers during their work by controling work hazards
and risks and by comprehensive health surveillance of
the workers
• “to promote healthy workers in a healthy workplace”
• the occupational health and safety professionals support
the employer and the workers in their active efforts and
responsibilities to develop an integrated health and
safety policy within the enterprise and to comply with the
existing health and safety regulations
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3. What professional competencies are
needed in response to the demands? (2)
Central competency fields are:
• To manage health surveillance in workers (from acute interventions
to maintaining health and work capacity and work place health
promotion) for individuals and groups . For this field health
professionals (mainly occupational health physicians and
occupational health nurses) are needed.
• To deal with hazards and risk factors in the work place by risk
inventary evaluation and management. For this fields different
professional groups can contribute based on their knowlegde and
skills on production, work, work environment, work organisation
(mainly safety engineer, occupational hygienist, occupational
psychologist, ergonomist)
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3. General competencies required for all
OHS professionals (3)
• To understand and to function in the framework of the
existing OHS structure and organisation, as determined
by local, national and international regulations
• To collaborate with the different actors of the
multidisciplinary OHS (division of tasks and
responsibilities)
• To understand and to function within the complex social
and economical organisation of the enterprise
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4. Multidisciplinarity and training for the right
professional competencies (1)
The required professional competencies are provided with
adequate training based on:
–
–
–
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the selection of the appropiate basic disciplines and other
admission conditions
the organisation of an accepted and recognised specialist
training program
the assesment of the entrance conditions for the profession
An program of continuing professional development
The organisation of the training lies:
- mostly with the higher education institutions (universities,
faculties, high schools) providing also the basic training
- in a number of training institutes specialised in different OHS
training programs
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Aspects of multidisciplinarity in the training
for the right professional competencies (2)
• Multidisciplinary in the curriculum of the basic (undergraduate
training)
• Multidisciplinarity in the curriculum of the specialist training
– General OHS competencies
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Legislation on OHS and relevant labour and social law
Organisation of labour, production and enterprise
Structure and function of OHS
Common methods for risk evaluation and control (e.g. statistical and
epidemiological methods)
• Basic knowlegde of tasks and functioning of the different OHS
professionals
• Communication and team working within the OHS and the
enterprise
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Aspects of multidisciplinarity in the training
for the right professional competencies (3)
• Educational methods to reïnforce multidisciplinarity
within the specialist training
– At the level of the curriculum: increasing the part of
courses of relevant other disciplines
– At the level of teachers: introducing more teacher
from other disciplines (with relevant experience)
– At the student level:
• Introducing specific courses (including skills training and
practice) focusing on multidisciplinarity
• Integration of (parts: from <10 to >75%) of specialist training
for different OHS professionals
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Aspects of multidisciplinarity in the training
for the right professional competencies (4)
• Positive aspects in multidisciplinary training
– Improve the scope of student on the field of occupational safety
and health and especialy on the functioning of the OHS
– Leads to better understanding of the role and the position of the
different OH professionals
– Provide the students with social skills for collaboration and team
working
– Is more cost-effective
• Negative points or threads:
– Dilution of the specialist identy and profile of the different OH
professionals by overemphasing the general OHS competencies
– Can induce superficial learning
– Negative perception by student groups
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The multidisciplinarity on the field
The aim of the multidisciplinary OHS organisation was to
provide a better service to employers and employees.
–
need for the outcome evaluation
– Positive aspects:
• increased capacity for work related hazards and risks evaluation,
especially for new risks (psychosocial factors)
• Better climate for communication and collaboration within OHS
– Negative aspects and threads:
• Increased cost without improved efficiency (overlap and redundancy
in tasks)
• Unclear definition of role and tasks of the different OHS
professionals
• More complex administration and bureaucracy especially for SME’s
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Conclusions
1.
Multidisciplinarity or multiprofessional collaboration is the logic
answer to cope with new and more complex health and safety
risks in the work and work environment and new demands for
health surveillance
2.
The occupational health professionals should adapt to this new
situation:
•
By improving their training and learn new competencies
especially to function better in a multiprofessional OHS
•
By developing a better specialist identity as a condition for a
clear position within the OHS and towards the clients
3.
The OHS must prove the added value of multidisciplinarity in
practice by better and more cost-effective outcomes
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