Journey to the DOccMed
I started working towards the DOccMed in the second year of my GP training. I was doing a community post where the service I was working in was undergoing significant organisational change. The fall out from this was affecting my colleagues, and therefore impacting the care we were able to deliver to our service users too. This got me thinking about work and health in the context of the healthcare workforce.
Alongside this, I started thinking about how we can support our patients’ work and health in general practice. I was particularly interested in the role of the fit note at the interface of work and health.
If your background is GP or another speciality and you are thinking about the DOccMed, here are four cornerstones that should help when thinking about where to start.
Find out about the speciality
I had a look at the Faculty of Occupational Medicine website to understand more about the pathway. After doing this I reached out to someone who I knew had completed GP training locally, and was now working in Occupational Health to get more soft intelligence on what it was like working in the speciality day-to-day.
Undertake the pre- requisite course
There are various courses on offer. These are compulsory to progressing towards the Diploma. I did the less than full time programme at the University of Manchester because it was more manageable alongside my GP training. Through the course I got a better understanding of what occupational health is all about. I was still interested in working towards the Diploma. I was able to get some aspirational funding and use some of my academic funding to put towards the course. NHS England is currently accepting expressions of interest for funding while they are exploring possible future funding for the two week intensive course run by the Royal Society of Public Health. Working towards the DOccMed journey during training can make financial sense where the financial and logistical barriers to study leave can be higher on the other side of training.
Prepare for the Diploma
The Diploma consists of a portfolio submission
An occupational health case study
A workplace risk assessment
And two further assessments
An MCQ examination
A Viva where two consultants ask questions about OH with some links to your portfolio submission
I found the material for my portfolio in my everyday practice as I did not have any OH experience at the time. Work and health definitely comes up across clinical settings.
In terms of studying for the MCQ- there aren’t that many resources out there. The pre requisite courses share some top tips for the exam. I found this book helpful to work through. Compared to my experience studying for GP exams I found the OH content had more grey areas and stretched my clinical reasoning ability in new ways. The FOM ethics guidance was also an important framework to keep in mind - as the OH clinician- worker relationship has a different angle to the doctor-patient relationship I was used to. More info useful for preparing for the Diploma including a portfolio template and a few sample exam questions can be found at the bottom of the Diploma page on the FOM website.
Think about working as an OHP
Once you have completed your Diploma you can start looking towards working in OH if this is something you want to pursue. Meeting other people in the speciality is a helpful way of finding out about current work opportunities. There are networks and mentoring schemes set up by the course directors at the prerequisite courses and through the Society of Occupational Medicine. There are also lots of opportunities to meet other people working in Occupational Health through events and forums hosted by the Society of Occupational Medicine, as well as a range of OH conferences that take place all over the UK and beyond each year. My experience of OH community is that everyone is interesting, friendly and supportive. It is also a really multidisciplinary speciality which means lots of opportunities for collaboration.