Читать книгу Occupational Health Law - Diana Kloss - Страница 31

The shortage of trained professionals skilled in occupational health, at a time when the need for OH support has obtained increased recognition, is in 2020 approaching crisis proportions. Many practitioners are nearing retirement and fewer recruits are entering the professions. This is especially acute for OH physicians and nurses. The Council for Work and Health established a small committee of members chaired by Professor John Harrison to examine the problem and make recommendations. Their second report: Planning the Future: implications for occupational health delivery and training (2016) was particularly influential. A National School of Occupational Health, of which Professor Harrison was the first head, was created in 2014 as a collaboration between Health Education England and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (FOM). Although initially confined to training in occupational medicine, the intention at first was that it should develop OH training in other professions. An OH nurse, Mandy Murphy, was appointed deputy head and it was envisaged that eventually other healthcare professions might come within scope. However, in 2018 it was decided to limit its activities to the recruitment and training of doctors.

For some years there had been difficulties in the training of OH nurses. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) included them on Part Three of the nursing register (under review), together with health visitors and school nurses, but it was felt by many in the occupational health professions that OH training involves the acquisition of such different skills that the current requirements were inappropriate. A group of senior OH nurses, working with the FOM, set up a Faculty of Occupational Health Nursing (FOHN) in 2018 to develop competence standards and a curriculum. Meanwhile the occupational physiotherapists and occupational therapists were active in developing competence standards and training in their specialties, as were professionals involved with vocational rehabilitation.