EMUTOM (European Module for Undergraduate Teaching of Occupational Medicine)
Medical examinations for fitness for a job:
- pre-employment and
- periodical medical examinations
Concise description
This EMUTOM lesson (which is part of the chapter about Fitness for work) gives a brief overview of pre-employment medical examinations and preventive periodical medical examinations for workers.
A pre-employment examination aims at protecting the health and safety of the examined person and of third parties by assessing medical fitness for a specific job. A pre-employment examination can be regarded as a kind of screening test and should comply with matching validity criteria. Therefore it is important to know the specific medical requirements for the job. A major question is whether a medical examination can predict health risks and healthy functioning in the future. And of course a pre- employment medical examination method should be acceptable and ethical.
In preventive periodical medical examination the aim is to periodically assess medical fitness for the job. It can be compared with a pre-employment examination.
After this lesson the student can explain when a pre-employment examination is applicable and useful. Furthermore, the student can explain when a preventive medical examination, aimed at fitness for work, is applicable and useful.
If you want to take a look at the self-assessment exercises and the power-point presentation of this lesson, clickhttps://emutom.eu/chapter3.php