Connecting public health and occupational and environmental medicine

The Residency in Occupational Medicine is for practicing clinicians (occupational physicians, occupational nurses, primary care providers) seeking to build skills in public health and occupational and environmental medicine.  Like other preventive medicine residencies, ours is one that will take you outside the hospital into the real world to apply your clinical and public health skills. Our residents provide health care and preventive services to a unique population: workers in their workplaces. They also learn how to perform investigations of workplace exposures, to conduct research on the epidemiology of workplace injuries, and they are prepared to provide expert opinion on occupational and environmental public health policy.

During the first year of the program residents enroll as full-time students at the UIC School of Public Health in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. They attend 2 clinics per week and complete 5 rotations when school is not in session. The second year of the program consists of 12 block rotations including 2 protected months for work on a mentored research project. Rotations include out-patient experiences such as on-site industrial employee health clinics and ambulatory occupational health clinics as well as electives at UIC specialty clinics. In addition, residents have the opportunity to complete rotations at NIOSH in Cincinnati, OSHA in Washington, DC, and at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Region 5 office here in Chicago.

Throughout the two years residents attend a dynamic weekly conference. The monthly Journal Club, Grand Rounds, Industrial Process talks, resident case presentations and research project presentations give residents the opportunity to stay abreast of the current literature and topics in Occupational and Environmental Health.

Required courses

  • EOHS 406 – Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (3 semester hours)
  • EOHS 421 – Occupational Health and Safety Practice (2 semester hours)
  • EOHS 495 – Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Seminar (1 semester hour)
  • EOHS 502 – Environment, Toxicology, and Disease (4 semester hours)
  • EOHS 563 – Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (3 semester hours)
  • EOHS 571 – Injury Epidemiology and Prevention (3 semester hours)