Perspectives from a new OHP – Dr Sophie Ainscough MBChB DOccMed
After ten years in Emergency Medicine, a fast-paced environment with rapid decision making, I was ready for a change. The demanding hours, emotional intensity, and increasing pressures prompted me to reflect on my career aspirations.
Before considering Occupational Medicine (OM), I knew little about the specialty. Like many medical school graduates, I focused on “traditional” career pathways, such as Surgery, Hospital Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Anaesthetics, Psychiatry and General Practice. Careers outside these specialties receive little exposure, and OM was never presented as a career option.
My interest developed through conversations with a colleague in OM. He described the breadth and diversity of the specialty, and I discovered that it encompasses a far wider range of practice than I had realised: the relationship between work and health, preventing work related illness, promoting wellbeing, and helping employees remain in or return to work safely while balancing the needs of both the individual and the employer.
Many of the skills I had developed in Emergency Medicine were transferable: assessing complex clinical presentations, communicating effectively with patients from diverse backgrounds and making balanced, evidence-based decisions are all fundamental to Occupational Medicine.
However, I would need to develop expertise in areas that were entirely new to me, including employment law, workplace hazards, fitness for work assessments and workplace adjustments.
The transition into OM has been challenging and rewarding. It has required me to develop a new skill set, looking beyond diagnosis and treatment, to consider how an individual's health affects their functional capacity and consequently their ability to work. Equally important is understanding how the workplace itself can influence a person's physical and mental health, whether positively or negatively.
OM uses the clinical skills I developed in Emergency Medicine, while expanding my knowledge. It is intellectually stimulating and professionally rewarding, with a sustainable work life balance. Key points for those moving into OM is:
- To focus on function rather than diagnosis.
- Develop a thorough understanding of the employee's role and workplace.
- Provide impartial, evidence based medical advice that supports safe, sustainable employment for both the employee and the organisation.
Perspectives from a supervising Consultant OHP – Dr James Quigley MFOM
Training Sophie was a pleasure. She has excellent communication skills from her background in Emergency Medicine (in my view, one of the most important aspects to being a successful Occupational Health Physician (OHP)). Having successfully passed her DOccMed, she was well equipped to begin the hands-on learning of how to be an OHP.
Three top tips for teaching new OHPs:
- Spend time on the theory – understanding OM involves a combination of theory and practical work, so a day on case management and report writing theory to consolidate experiences from clinic was important.
- Build up the case load and complexity – start with observation and move to reviewing a reduced caseload under supervision. Sophie, six months in, is now completing full clinics and writing reports, with the reports checked by a senior OHP prior to release.
- Allow OHPs to develop their own style – All OHPs have a style to their reports, there is wording and phraseology that you will come across and think ‘I like that!’ (and those are the phrases to write down to refer back to!). When checking a new OHP’s reports it can be difficult to avoid trying to replicate your own style. Be mindful of this and allow the new OHP to develop their style (while giving helpful advice and pointers).
Nation OH supports shadowing for clinicians who are new to OH. Please contact us at admin@nationoh.co.uk