[Assurance and assessment of quality education in occupational medicine in selected countries of western Europe and in the United States. 1. Western Europe].

The author discusses the studies undertaken with the general aim to provide education in occupational medicine and assure and assess its quality in some countries of Western Europe advanced more than Poland in this area. It becomes quite evident that despite a widespread interest in quality of education, there is a lack of basic systemic solutions. A gap between basic theoretical and methodological guidelines and a large number of dispersed reports on concrete analytical and evaluation studies can be still observed. In addition to the presentation of an inside view of research activities carried out in some countries of Western Europe and the United States, based on selected professional publications, the author formulates general conclusions on how the assurance and quality assessment of education in occupational medicine function in those countries.