The practice of doctors, who completed a 2-month basic knowledge training course in occupational medicine, in the public sector and in the private sector

Abstract

At present, the number of establishments has increased. Therefore, it has resulted in an increase in the demand for doctors in occupational medicine. The purpose of this study was to describe of the occupational medicine practice who have completed the basic knowledge training in occupational medicine for doctors for a 2-month, who has been trained during the 2013 - 2017 at Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital. This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study. The data, location, the description of the occupational medicine practice were collected by using a questionnaire. The data was analyzed by using statistics which are mean, percentage, standard deviation, chi-square statistics, and Fisher's exact test statistics. The result of the study showed that doctors in the public sector can perform more variety of tasks than doctors in the private sector. The doctors in the public sector worked in disease prevention at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels within hospitals and establishments. On the other hand, the doctors in the private sector only worked at the secondary level within the hospital. It was found that the job description of occupational medicine are different in terms of risk assessment, annual health examination, fit for work assessment, impairment assessment, diagnosis of work-related diseases, health checks in people at risk groups and disease investigations. Therefore, there should be a promotion in training courses that are suitable for the actual work of the doctor in each group to increase knowledge and operational skills.