MSc Occupational Medicine / Course details

The practice of occupational medicine covers a broad range of industries, jobs and hence ‘exposures’, against changing demography and culture within the workplace and wider society.  The identification, prevention and management of occupationally linked disorders can be challenging and these issues are discussed within this unit, illustrated by specific industry examples. Topics explore occupational disorders within the context of respiratory, musculoskeletal, skin, infectious diseases, occupational cancers and medically unexplained symptoms (including bio-psychosocial challenges). 

This unit aims to enable students to develop an understanding of the steps required to identify whether a disease is work-related or not and to critically evaluate the prevention and management of specific occupationally linked disorders including aspects of chronic disease management. 

The learning outcomes intend to:

• provide an understanding of the main occupational disorders in terms of epidemiology, investigation, diagnosis, management and prevention;
• enable students to critically examine the methods of identification of occupational disorders and their causes and to know when reporting of an occupationally related disorder is required;
• illustrate the role of early detection of occupational diseases in their prevention and management and the range of methods by which this might be achieved; and
• enable students to evaluate the role of risk assessment in the management and prevention of occupational disorders.

• Respiratory Disorders
• Occupational Dermatoses
• Musculoskeletal Disorders
• Occupational Cancers
• Aviation Medicine
• Occupational Infections
• Medically Unexplained Symptoms

On completion, the student should be able to:

• critically evaluate occupationally related diseases by body system, and advise on their prevention and management
• demonstrate understanding of the range of industrial situations where disorders may occur, and be able to make an initial differential diagnosis and assessment of these diseases;
• critically examine methodologies to classify and investigate occupational diseases;
• identify and evaluate risk factors for occupational diseases; and
• demonstrate understanding of the fundamental principles of risk assessments in relation to causal agents.

On completion, the student should be able to:

• critically examine knowledge limitations within occupational health, and identify the need to seek further (specialist) advice;
• reflect on the impact of a wide range of influences (such as cultural background and intellectual capacity) on the working environment;
• synthesise and evaluate the relevant medical and scientific literature relating to occupational health practice; and
• demonstrate the ability to solve problems and make decisions about occupational health issues.

On completion, the student should be able to:

• make an initial differential diagnosis and assessment of occupational diseases;
• apply the principles of assessing fitness to work for people with occupational diseases; and
• assess medically unexplained symptoms in the context of a workplace setting.

On completion, the student should be able to:

• independently gather, organise, and evaluate information from a variety of sources and develop an evidence-based approach to clinical practice;
• integrate knowledge of health, legislation, and business in the management of work-related issues affecting both individuals and groups of employees; and
• apply the clinical knowledge of occupational diseases to wider clinical practice.

• Baxter P, Aw T, Cockroft A, Durrington P, Harrington J. Hunter’s diseases of occupations 10th ed. London: Hodder- Edward Arnold 2010. ISBN 9780340941669.
• McDonald, C (ed.) 2000, Epidemiology of Work Related Diseases, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, Newark. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [29 July 2024]. 

Students enrolled on the course can access recommended resources through their University of Manchester library account

If you have any questions regarding the content of this unit, please contact the Course Unit Leader, Melanie Carder, via melanie.carder@manchester.ac.uk.

If you have any other queries, please contact the Programme Admin team via shs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk.