Supervised Practicum-Year Residency in Occupational Medicine
University of Pennsylvania Health System
External Track
Overview
This NIOSH-supported, ACGME accredited, practicum year residency program is designed to
provide structured supervised training and experiences to ensure that the resident has achieved
competency in all areas required for the American Board of Preventive Medicine Examination in
Occupational Medicine and for the specialist practice of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine. There is also emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and attitudes in
leadership and organizational management. Strong clinical skills, beyond those that would be
expected to be acquired from the minimal one required year, are necessary for admission to the
program. The program consists of two interrelated components, a didactic component and an
applied component.
The external track is designed to train clinical and professional leaders in occupational and
environmental medicine. The program takes advantage, not only of the superb resources of
one of the nation’s top five Schools of Medicine, but also of other schools such as the Wharton
School of Business and the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University Of
Pennsylvania.
An obligatory, structured, didactic component requires three full-days of participation in
Philadelphia (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) once a month. The program is designed in
modular form so that it may be completed over more than one calendar year. Certain general
objectives including clinical judgment and skills, critical thinking and analysis, effective
communication and professional development are addressed throughout the year. Nested
within the program are five didactic rotations or clusters around the themes of organizational
management; the workplace (hazard recognition evaluation and control); the worker, disability
and work fitness; environmental health, risk assessment and risk communication; and
population based occupational medicine. Each resident must satisfactorily complete and
present a meaningful project in each module or cluster area.
An appropriately qualified physician in full-time employment may participate in the external track
of the residency provided that a practicum experience can be arranged with the employer which
meets University of Pennsylvania program requirements including satisfactory supervision of the
resident's clinical work. The external track requires a comprehensive written understanding with
the employer, and time release analogous to that necessary for executive development
programs.
Depending on the experience available through employment additional
arrangements may be necessary to provide sufficient breadth of experience, including
experiences at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. University of Pennsylvania
Occupational Residency program faulty also make four visits to each resident's worksite over
the course of the year.
Successful completion of the practicum year requires the active demonstration of competency in
didactic and applied components including through practical demonstration of required skills and
completion of required reports and projects.
Admission Requirements
All residency candidates will generally be expected to have strong clinical skills prior to
admission such as those obtained from training and experience in family practice, internal
medicine, or emergency medicine. Candidates with clinical training in other specialties will also
be considered for admission, however they may be required to gain additional experience in
clinical areas that directly impact on occupational medicine practice. These clinical areas may
include outpatient orthopedics, sports medicine, dermatology, pulmonary diseases, and
ambulatory care.
All resident candidates will be expected to possess a Masters in Public Health degree or an
equivalent masters degree. The completion of business courses prior to admission is
encouraged.
Individuals who do not meet this requirement will be expected to be actively enrolled and to
have almost completed such a program, including having successfully completed all the core
courses required by the American Board of Preventive Medicine (Biostatistics; Epidemiology;
Environmental and Occupational Health; Health Services Organization and Administration and a
course on Social and Behavioral Influences on Health. Completion of all academic-year
requirements is required before completion of the practicum-year can be certified.
Candidates for the external track will generally be employed full-time in an occupational
medicine practice in a clinical, corporate, military, or governmental setting as a staff physician,
assistant medical director, associate medical director, or equivalent and will have continuing
access to one or more senior physicians who can act as site supervisors for the purpose of the
training.
Prior to admission applicants will need to establish and document that there are sufficient
resources and variety of work to ensure the quality and comprehensiveness of the learning
experience at their work location. The resources evaluated will include the:
 Number of employees and variety of jobs and job-settings.
 Medical facilities
 Caseloads
 Type of patients
 Opportunities for collaboration with industrial hygienists, nurses, safety personnel,
counselors and/or others concerned with psychosocial issues.
 Opportunities to deal with clinical, scientific, social, legal and administrative issues.
 Opportunities to deal with issues from the perspectives of workers and their
representatives and of regulatory or legal authorities, as well as from the employers'
perspective.
 Opportunities to interact with workers, human resources personnel, industrial relations
personnel, line supervisors, worker representatives, and the outside medical community.
 Opportunities for experience in the clinical and administrative aspects of direct worker
care and job assignment, medical screening and surveillance, health conservation and
promotion, environmental assessment, employee assistance and relevant regulatory
compliance.
The prospective resident will also need to demonstrate that he or she has a suitably qualified,
board-certified physician who will be an on-site mentor.
Educational Plan
By the commencement of the practicum-year each resident will be assigned a faculty preceptor
(the residency program director or a key faculty member). On the basis of an initial competency
assessment against the required competencies the resident, together with the faculty preceptor,
will develop a plan to acquire the required competencies over the year. This plan will
incorporate the projects and other requirements of the didactic program. The plan will need
approval by the residency director.
On the basis of the plan a learning contract will be established with the resident, and the
responsible person at the worksite (the in-house person to whom the resident is responsible).
An affiliation agreement will be necessary between the residents’ worksite and the University of
Pennsylvania Medical Center.
The preceptor will visit the site approximately quarterly and will include a meeting with the
resident and the responsible person at these times. At these visits the preceptor will review
relevant aspects of the quality of the program, quality of the residents work and progress
against objectives.
In addition the resident may participate in supplementary experiences to round out the
experience available at the primary workplace. The need for these will be determined on an
individual basis, by the preceptor, resident and/or program director with input from the
responsible person.
Successful completion of the applied component of the externally employed resident track will
require the equivalent of one year full-time effort and successful attainment of the required
competencies including satisfying completion of the five competency blocks. Where completion
of these requirements within the allowed time is not possible, the supervised-practicum year
may take more than one year to complete. Generally we would require the supervisedpracticum year requirement to be completed within two years. Residents are encouraged to
complete requirements in one year, but not at the cost of stress to the degree that it might inhibit
performance or learning.
Tuition
The cost of tuition for the 2012-2013 has been set at $32,500, however, where residents work
more than 200 miles from Philadelphia there is an additional charge of $2000 to partially offset
the cost of faculty travel/time for site visits. Residents outside the contiguous 48 states should
contact the Program Director regarding the applicable travel/time supplement.
We have received funding through a training grant from NIOSH to help pay for part of the tuition
and some required travel costs for attending the program in Philadelphia. Some funds may be
available to reduce the costs for a small number of needy trainees. Awards will be available on
a competitive basis and will be based on criteria of community need in addition to the usual
criteria of merit. Criteria of community need for this purpose include: service to underserved
population(s); difficulty in accessing a training program (remote location, location where there is
no training); family responsibilities; specific regional workforce need (lack of occupational
medicine specialists in area, other regional needs, etc.); and service to special populations at
risk, including minority and disadvantaged workers.
Further Information
Further information and application materials may be obtained from:
Judith McKenzie, MD, MPH
Occupational Medicine Residency Director
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center
One Convention Boulevard, Penn Tower 4th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104-4283
Telephone: 215-662-4439
Facsimile: 215-662-4430
E-mail: jmckenzi@mail.med.upenn.edu