How occupational physicians pay attention to the values of employees: a qualitative study

The Dutch Association for Occupational Medicine considers employee values to be an essential pillar in occupational medicine. The occupational physician should focus on what an employee finds valuable. However, it is unclear how occupational physicians comply with this policy and pay attention to employee values. The present study aims to fill this gap by mapping to what extent occupational physicians pay attention to employee values.

We used an exploratory qualitative research method through in-depth interviews with 10 Dutch occupational physicians. Additionally, two non-participating observations were conducted.

The results show that values remain mostly implicit and are applied intuitively or unconsciously but not explicitly. Hence, the ethical requirements of the Dutch Association for Occupational Medicine policy remain underexposed and under-executed. Multiple facets foster or impede a conversation about values. As far values were mentioned they were mainly extrinsic, social, and prestige-oriented. Intrinsic values were hardly mentioned. However, a few occupational physicians explicitly stated that they pay attention to values and reported that heeding to employee values contributes to better collaboration and decision-making with the employee. We argue that paying attention to intrinsic values may improve the overall work quality of occupational physicians and benefit employee well-being.