Degree
& Curriculum
Degree | Curriculum
Need
For Program:
Occupational injury is a large public health burden. Within the United
States alone 5100 people lost their lives on the job due to an unintentional
injury in 1998 (National Safety Council, 1999). That is a rate of 14
deaths per calendar day. In 1998, 3.8 million workers in America suffered
a disabling injury. This estimate, while still small compared to a 1994
estimate of 6.3 million (NORA Committee, 1998), is still larger than
1% of the total US population. Cost estimates for occupational injuries
in 1998 add up to $125 billion. This cost is well on par with the cost
of treating other large public health diseases such as cancer and heart
disease in U.S. (Leigh et al., 1997) and well above the profits of the
top Fortune 500 companies. In 1996 the National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH) established the National Occupational Research
Agenda (NORA), which identified traumatic injury as a research priority
area.
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Degree:
The pre-doctoral program
will offer the Doctor of Science (SD) degree in Occupational Health.
Program
Goals and Objectives
1. To produce the next generation
of qualified researchers with the multidisciplinary skills and experience
necessary to design and conduct studies in order to understand the etiology
and prevention of occupational injury.
2. To provide interdisciplinary-training
for future researchers and professionals with traditional disciplinary
backgrounds to expand the breadth and depth of their knowledge within
in the public health framework. This approach emphasizes prevention
through:
a. Identifying and evaluating
risks for injury in the workplace,
b. Intervening and reducing risks with the development of administrative
and engineering controls in the design of workplace environments,
and
c. Managing and developing policies and programs to prevent workplace
acute and chronic injuries as well as the rehabilitation and return
to work of those injured.
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Curriculum:
Prospective
Students Click Here
Training Approach: The
program's unified training approach takes a holistic view of workplace
hazards and focuses on the prevention of injury and illness associated
with those hazards. The components of the approach include the identification,
measurement and evaluation of occupational hazards; the study of the
occurrence of work-related injury and illness; the design of organizational
and engineering controls, and the development of management and surveillance
systems. This multidisciplinary approach integrates the traditional
engineering techniques to the assessment and control of occupational
hazards with the occupational health and safety approach to prevention
of injury and illness for a progressive modern program.
General description of
requirements: Students will be expected to first master information
and competencies in occupational injury prevention and control. The
higher-level courses each relate different principles, methods and theories
that are directly applicable to occupational injury prevention research
and allow for the trainees to focus in either occupational injury epidemiology
or occupational safety engineering and science. Training specialization
will be achieved through occupational health, environmental science
and engineering, health and social behavior and health policy and management
courses that offer advanced teachings in safety engineering, ergonomics,
biomechanics, behavioral epidemiology and health services research.
For the doctoral program,
the proposed curriculum requires a minimum of two years of course work
for the completion of 40 credit hours plus an additional two to three
years to complete a research thesis. Students must also complete a written
comprehensive examination at the end of their coursework that demonstrates
their proficiency in the field. Upon completing their research they
must produce three publishable papers based on their doctoral research.
The postdoctoral training
program is a non-degree granting program and requires a minimum of two
years. Trainees will be required to take all of the specialty injury
prevention research courses (approximately 15 credits) and complete
a research internship. The program will also require presentations in
research seminars, occupational medicine grand rounds or class lectures,
and peer reviewed publications.
Advisement/Mentorship:
Students will be assigned to one of the core or supporting program faculty
for advisement soon after admission to the program. Together with their
advisor, a customized curriculum plan will be developed based on required
courses and specific electives. Students will meet periodically with
advisors for the following purposes: to review progress toward satisfactory
completion of course work (including options for elective courses);
to prepare for written exams, to develop research proposals, to access
sources for data collection and management, and to review drafts of
papers. Our experience with training in other occupational health specialty
areas has emphasized that the student advisement/mentorship training
component for both pre and postdoctoral students is critical to the
success of the overall training program.
Curriculum content:
Course requirements draw from several curriculum sources from within
the School of Public Health, as well as M.I.T, and the Division of Engineering
and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. Core requirements will include
requirements of the school and specific classes for injury prevention
research. Pre-doctoral students will be required to complete a minimum
of 40 credits. Twenty of these credits have to be in occupational injury
prevention research with a focus on either occupational safety engineering
and science or occupational injury epidemiology. The other twenty must
contain 10 in each of two declared minors (e.g, Health Policy and Management
or Health and Social Behavior).
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