Occupational Medicine Residency Training Grant

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a revised competing continuation application for a practicum-year Occupational Medicine Residency training program at the University of Pennsylvania. We plan to graduate 8 residents per year. Since its inception in 1997, the program has graduated 78 Practicum Year Occupational Medicine Residents to address the critical national need for occupational physicians, 7 residents are currently in training. A NIOSH Training Grant has helped support the program since July 1998. We have delivered practicum year training for physicians from other fields of medicine, making a mid-career shift to Occupational Medicine. The program structure is unique and successful: trainees may obtain supervised clinical training in qualified external practice locations, or at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Trainees obtain other required professional competencies through five subject-area rotations with didactic education and projects supervised by University of Pennsylvania faculty. These five areas are the workplace, hazard identification and control; environmental health, risk assessment and risk communication; organizational and health care management; population occupational health; and the worker. Rigorous quality evaluation criteria including: resident before and after self- assessments of their level of competence; faculty evaluations of resident performance; performance in the American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM) Certifying Examinations; and results of independent surveys, demonstrate the program's superior outcomes. A NIOSH Training Grant has helped support the program since July 1998. NIOSH funds are used to support training based on criteria of need including: (i) service to an underserved population, (ii) difficulty in accessing a suitable training program (remote location, location where there is no training, family responsibilities, etc.), (iii) specific regional workforce needs and (iv) and service to special populations at risk, including minority and disadvantaged workers. Our program has a commitment and strong plan for recruiting underrepresented minorities into training in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. We will continue to train 8 physicians per year (40 over 5 years) to address the critical need for trained Occupational Medicine physicians who work in industry, government and clinical facilities to help address Occupational Health issues important to the health of the workforce, including in underserved locations and populations. Currently we are the largest civilian US Occupational Medicine practicum year residency. We graduated 9% of Physicians newly certified in Occupational Medicine by the ABPM for 2005-2007.