Occupational Medicine is the medical specialty devoted to the prevention and management of occupational and environmental injury, illness and disability, and promotion of the health and productivity of workers, their families, and communities.
Established in 1978, the Occupational Medicine Residency Program at Meharry Medical College is a two-year program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). It is the only such program offered by an HBCU and the only such program in the state of Tennessee. In addition to board eligibility in occupational medicine, residents earn a Master of Science in Public Health degree from the Meharry School of Graduate Studies, Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited program.
Therefore, our program is comprised of one academic year and one practicum year of training. The academic year consists of a course of study leading to a Master’s Degree that includes certified training in the four areas required by the American Board of Preventive Medicine: epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, and health administration.
Other courses required by the program include behavioral health, occupational health I and II, industrial hygiene, and toxicology. Completion of a master thesis is a required element of this program and residents are provided research opportunities and supervision appropriate to their interests. Training is conducted at Meharry Medical College, through the CEPH-accredited MSPH degree program.
Residents must meet requirements set by the Meharry School of Graduate Studies for satisfactory performance.
The practicum year includes both didactic and applied components. The overall goal of the practicum year is to train the resident in the practice of occupational medicine; to this end, the scope of the experience is designed to be broad enough to ensure an ability to address a range of occupational health issues in different settings, with both sick and well individuals and populations.
The resident gains experience in:
- planning and implementation of workplace-hazard recognition, evaluation, and control;
- disability and work fitness;
- organizational and healthcare management;
- environmental health and risk assessment; and
- population-based occupational medicine.
Specific rotations during the practicum year include comprehensive occupational medicine, OSHA, employee health, environmental medicine, toxicology, and health administration/quality management. Residents also experience various types of organizations and infrastructures, from industry to clinical occupational medicine practice in the private setting, public health agencies, community programs, and medical schools. Didactic sessions in the mornings and continuity clinics in the afternoons continue once weekly throughout the two years of training.
The mission of the Program is to recruit and train qualified physicians who demonstrate:
- commitment to a career in the prevention of occupational and environmental diseases
- skill in diagnosis and treatment
- ability to develop and administer occupational and environmental health programs for unions, industry, government, and academic institutions; and proactive enthusiasm in the development of scientific, legal, political, and ethical questions in the discipline.