In the work-man relationship we have to identify the part of intervention of the occupational health doctor. Some might think that man is responsible; that a healthy entity enters into this binomial-process and must remain healthy.
Let us remember a phrase: “Work is sick, we have to cure work to prevent diseases in workers” (Luigui Devoto, 1901). That is the crux of the work of a doctor in companies: we have to cure the work so that the worker does not get sick. Thus, the role of the health professional at work makes sense in the face of the vertiginous wave of interactions in a work environment.
What is an occupational health doctor? It is that person who has the qualification in Medicine and who has a specialization to develop this knowledge in a work environment.
Why are they different or why make a distinction? The crucial objective of an occupational health professional is to keep a worker healthy by preventing diseases and risks within the work environment. That is, unlike other subspecialties, the occupational health doctor must maintain an optimal state of health in the collaborators. “If you arrive healthy, when you leave, you leave healthy”, is one of the many phrases of those who are passionate about this branch of Medicine.
There are some skills and characteristics that a professional in this sector should possess. If you have them, you will be able to recognize and listen, but you will also be able to develop competencies that will turn it into a expert professional in the field:
- Strategic and analytical
- Anticipation – prevention
- Critical thinking
- ability to decide
- ability to interpret
- Align, reconcile and agree
- Permanent learning
The role of the occupational physician
Now, what is the real role of a occupational health doctor Or what is the advantage of having a qualified doctor within the work environment?
Mainly, having a professional in the field will guarantee that there will be someone to make an immediate intervention in the face of any crisis, understanding crisis to be any event that occurs in the workplace in an immediate response function. However, the best job is to anticipate and prevent any of these crises from affecting the worker’s work again, carrying out preventive health programs according to the environment in which the worker works.
The figure of the occupational health doctor is already mentioned in different articles of the Federal Labor Lawhowever, until now it has not been given a specific weight in the labor sector because its function has not been established as mandatory, which is contradictory to some of the Mexican regulations in which it is argued that the valuations of this or that standard must be performed by a doctor with knowledge in occupational medicine.
Precisely, and in the face of such limitation, we must dignify the profession and emphasize who that doctor is, and I specify the latter not for the purpose of discrimination, but for the purpose of granting the maximum benefit of knowledge to the working population of our country. For this the occupational health professional You must maintain a continuous academic update that gives you all the tools, initially basic, for the performance of your profession and later that equips you with the avant-garde tools that can make your work of an excellent level, complying with the highest quality standards.
Based on the foregoing, it is also necessary to make some remarks that are of vital importance within the human capital of companies: to achieve the required and expected success in their health and safety indicators, the team with which we must work is a multidisciplinary team. made up of engineers, ergonomists, doctors, nurses, psychologists, etc., however, for the purposes of this article, I only refer to the characteristics that the leader or the person who should or should lead the health department or service should have within the company and who subsequently joins his effort and knowledge to the team.
Road to formalization
For some years there has been an initiative to formalize this relationship or this role of the occupational health doctor through a specific regulation on the occupational medicine preventive services in companies, their functions and activities. This proposal was stopped by the pandemic that affects the world and has had to wait.
However, from our trench we have continued to work so that as soon as a preliminary project can be drawn up, we have all the legal support for it compiled and position the doctor as an indispensable leader in the Workplace. Through the National Federation of Health at Work AC (Fenastac), and with the support of all its affiliated associations and schools throughout the Mexican Republic, hard work has been done to ensure that this role is played.
The best connotation would be that the doctor has the health qualification at work and that also belongs to some association related to the same. This would ensure, on the one hand, the necessary academic update and, on the other, have the support, backing and experience of many of our expert colleagues in the field.
the future of health at work it’s promising. The pandemic has put this specialty in the eye of the hurricane. It is up to us to strengthen that vision with good legal foundations and strengthen the future of generations with specific and quality academic support, with the sole purpose of improving the health of the working population of our country.
*The author is a medical specialist in Occupational Health, president of the National Federation of Occupational Health, Fenastac (@HosannaRodriguez)