Occupational health

This course is mandatory for those students taking the Health promotion and disease prevention stream in the Master’s degree program in Public Health. The course can also be taken as a singular course.

This course will equip students with knowledge, skills, and competencies related to the principles, strategies, and frameworks essential in occupational health. Students will learn about workplace hazards, occupational diseases, risk assessment and management, as well as health promotion in occupational settings. The course fosters interdisciplinary understanding and equips students with the skills to assess and address occupational health challenges in various professional settings.

After completing the course, the students are supposed to:

Knowledge and understanding

• Have knowledge of key concepts, theories, and models within occupational health.
• Understand the role of occupational health policies, regulations, and standards in ensuring safe work environments.
• Have knowledge of occupational health systems in Norway and globally.
• Have knowledge of main risk factors related to workplaces and their relation to health.
• Understand the main causes related to occupational diseases and work absenteeism.
• Understand risks assessment and management principles and practices of workplaces.
• Understand what occupational safety is and what it includes.
• To possess knowledge of and to understand the phenomenon of occupational health from multiple academic disciplines.
• Have knowledge of how work can promote health and understand different health promotion strategies at workplaces.
• Understand ethical principles related to occupational health.
• Have knowledge of sustainable dimensions and practices in occupational health.

Skills and competences

The student can:

• Identify and categorize common physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial factors in workplace environments.
• Recognize common occupational diseases and their causes.
• Design and recommend preventive measures to mitigate workplace factors and promote health.
• Apply relevant theories and models to describe and discuss current health-promotion measures related to work.
• Design workplace health promotion programs aimed at improving employee well-being.
• Exchange viewpoints and experiences across disciplines relevant to occupational health and, through this, contribute to the development of good practices.
• Communicate about occupational health risks and solutions effectively to diverse audiences, including workers, employers, and policymakers.
• Apply relevant theories and empirical information needed to produce working conditions that align with ethical and sustainable dimensions of occupational health.

General competences

• Have a system-level perspective on how work environments, organizational structures, and societal factors influence workers' health and safety.
• Capacity to identify, analyze, and propose solutions to occupational health challenges in diverse settings.
• Develop an understanding of how cultural, social, and economic factors influence occupational health practices and outcomes.
• Ability to foster a strong sense of ethics and responsibility in promoting safe and equitable working conditions.
• Enhanced ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams to design and implement occupational health strategies.
• Ability to convey occupational health concepts and recommendations clearly to diverse stakeholders, including workers, employers, and policymakers.
• An understanding of global occupational health challenges and the ability to apply knowledge in both local and international contexts.

Anbefalte forkunnskaper

HEL-3045 Introduction to Public Health, HEL-3047 Introduction to Research Methods in Public Health , HEL-3048 Global and Environmental Health, HEL-3053 Health promotion and disease prevention

Language of instruction and examination

Re-sit examination