Persechino Benedetta, Fontana Luca, Buresti Giuliana, Rondinone Bruna Maria, Laurano Patrizia, Imbriani Marcello, Iavicoli Sergio
Italian Workers' Compensation Authority (INAIL), Monte Porzio Catone (Rome), Italy (Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Epidemiology and Hygiene).
University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy (Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine).
Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2016;29(5):837-58. doi: 10.13075/ijomeh.1896.00736.
Occupational medicine is a discipline continually evolving in response to technological advances, changes in workplaces and production processes, emergence of new occupational risks and diseases and modifications in regulatory framework for occupational health and safety. Therefore, the recurrent revaluation of professional activity, information demands and education and training needs of occupational physicians is essential in order to identify methodologies and tools that may contribute to improvement of their professional knowledge and competency. In this regard, we conducted the first large-scale national survey of Italian occupational medicine physicians to define their demographic and professional activity and to assess their information demands, training and updating needs.
A random sample of occupational physicians, listed in the national register of the Italian Ministry of Health, was selected to complete a voluntary survey. Subjects recruited in this study were asked to complete 3 different sections (personal and professional information, training and updating needs, professional activity and practice characteristics) of a questionnaire for a total of 35 questions.
Most of participants were specialized in occupational medicine, worked for a large number of companies and carried out health surveillance on a total number of workers that exceeds 1500. Occupational physicians would like to have a higher training offer towards practical aspects of health surveillance, risks assessment, manual handling of loads, chemical substances and upper limb biomechanical overload. Interestingly, statistically significant differences were observed subdividing the sample into different groups according to the legal requirements to perform the professional activity of occupational physicians in Italy or according to particular aspects of their professional activity.
This study has provided interesting findings that may help to guide future discussion on alternative and additional instruments and/or methodologies that may be adopted to implement the quality and effectiveness of occupational medicine practice. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2016;29(5):837-858.
职业医学是一门随着技术进步、工作场所和生产流程的变化、新职业风险和疾病的出现以及职业健康与安全监管框架的调整而不断发展的学科。因此，定期重新评估职业医生的专业活动、信息需求以及教育和培训需求至关重要，以便确定有助于提高其专业知识和能力的方法和工具。在这方面，我们对意大利职业医学医生进行了首次大规模全国性调查，以确定他们的人口统计学和专业活动情况，并评估他们的信息需求、培训和更新需求。
从意大利卫生部国家登记册中列出的职业医生中随机抽取样本，以完成一项自愿调查。本研究招募的受试者被要求完成一份问卷的3个不同部分（个人和专业信息、培训和更新需求、专业活动和实践特征），共计35个问题。
大多数参与者专门从事职业医学，为大量公司工作，并对总数超过1500名的工人进行健康监测。职业医生希望在健康监测的实践方面、风险评估、负荷的人工搬运、化学物质以及上肢生物力学过载方面获得更多培训。有趣的是，根据意大利职业医生开展专业活动的法律要求或根据其专业活动的特定方面将样本细分为不同组时，观察到了具有统计学意义的差异。
本研究提供了有趣的发现，可能有助于指导未来关于可采用的替代和补充工具及/或方法的讨论，以提高职业医学实践的质量和有效性。《国际职业医学与环境卫生杂志》2016年；29(5):837 - 858。
