About
Established in 1976, the Occupational Medicine Residency Program is a training program that jointly sits under the auspices of the Program in Public Health’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and the UCI School of Medicine’s Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.* The Occupational Medicine Residency Program is a core teaching program of the UCI Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH).
The residency program has graduated more than 85 physicians who constitute the core of the practicing occupational medicine specialists in Southern California and man are leaders in corporate occupational medicine and public health practice across the region. The residency program’s long-term collaboration with occupational medicine practitioners and other programs throughout the area offers a rich source of training experiences and expertise for our residents.
The Occupational and Environmental Medicine residency program benefits from its location in Orange County, a major population center with more than 3 million people, and the greater Southern California area. The program’s regional emphasis gives our residents access to training opportunities in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.
UC Irvine is strongly committed to the residency program, providing support for program faculty and staff, as well as offices and clinical, teaching and research facilities at COEH. The residency is also a component of the Southern California Education and Resource Center, which is jointly run by UC Irvine and UCLA, is funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and provides support for resident stipends.
*This program is not accredited by Council on Education for Public Health. But is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), under the UCI School of Medicine.
Learning Outcomes
The goal of the Occupational Medicine Residency Program is to prepare residents for the comprehensive practice of occupational medicine in a variety of settings, including private clinical practices, managed health care organizations, corporate medical departments, public health programs and legal or regulatory authorities.
The residency addresses the competencies specified by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for residency training in preventive medicine-occupational medicine, as well as core competencies identified by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. A list of competencies addressed by the program is available for review. Graduates of the program are well prepared to take the ABPM certification examination in preventive medicine-occupational medicine.
- Enabling residents to acquire knowledge of and the ability to apply the core sciences of preventive medicine—epidemiology, biostatistics, health care organization and administration, occupational and environmental health, and behavioral sciences—in the identification and solution of health problems in occupational groups
- Helping residents acquire knowledge and skills in toxicology, environmental monitoring and safety evaluation as they apply to individuals and groups
- Enhancing residents’ clinical knowledge in the care of people with occupational or environmental exposures and in the assessment of suitability for employment
- Teaching residents about planning, management and evaluation of occupational health programs in clinical practice and corporate settings
- Developing in residents an understanding of the policy-making process in occupational medicine with respect to law, regulation and workers’ compensation
- Creating in residents an understanding of the roles and expertise of other occupational health professionals, and to collaborate with these professionals
- Providing an opportunity for residents to develop independent research skills and to be able to use appropriate analytical techniques in the prevention of occupational diseases and injuries and in the evaluation of occupational health care programs.
These aims are achieved through the graduate degree programs during the academic phase, the field site training during the practicum phase, clinical training at UC Irvine’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH), clinical case conferences, didactic seminars and the resident projects.
Time to Degree
The Occupational Medicine Residency program is designed as a two-year training experience consisting of an academic phase and practicum phase with ongoing core residency training activities.
Career Opportunities
The residency program has graduated more than 80 physicians who constitute the core of the practicing occupational medicine specialists in Southern California and are leaders in corporate occupational medicine and public health practice across the region. The residency program’s long-term collaboration with occupational medicine practitioners and other programs throughout the area offers a rich source of training experiences and expertise for our residents.
