What factors influenced trainees to choose occupational medicine?

<span class="paragraphSection"><div class="boxTitle">Abstract</div><div class="boxTitle">Background</div>Occupational medicine (OM) is a varied speciality which ranges from clinical to preventive medicine and therefore offers a wide range of opportunities. However, OM recruitment rates have been variable, suggesting that trainees applying for speciality training may not be considering it as a career.<div class="boxTitle">Aims</div>To examine the potential factors that influenced current trainees and recently accredited specialists to choose OM as a career.<div class="boxTitle">Methods</div>An anonymous online survey distributed via the OM trainees Google group between 9 and 30 September 2016.<div class="boxTitle">Results</div>A total of 34 trainees (41% of the total membership of the group) participated in the survey. Twenty-two trainees (65%) were aged between 36 and 45 and 20 (59%) were females. Trainees came from a wide range of backgrounds including general practice (13, 38%), medical specialities (8, 21%) and surgical specialities (6, 18%). Factors such as regular working hours (24, 73%) and dissatisfaction with other specialities (18, 55%) positively influenced trainees to choose OM. Influences from other occupational physicians (OPs; 15, 44%) also played a role in attracting trainees. Negative influences included lack of exposure to OM both at medical school (31, 92%) and at postgraduate level (26, 76%), lack of publicity about OM (25, 74%) as well as a reduction in salary (25, 74%).<div class="boxTitle">Conclusions</div>Many factors influence the choice of a career in OM. Increasing awareness of OM in both undergraduate and postgraduate training, including involving OPs in such training, could influence more prospective trainees to consider OM as a lifelong career.</span>

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