How are psychosocial risks taught to Canadian occupational medicine residents?

Current Canadian Occupational Medicine residency program training routes and curriculum are being redesigned, using a competence by design model and reverting to a primary entry specialty likely in 2027. This is an opportunity to improve training standards and better prepare residents to address psychosocial risk prevention and worker's compensation.

To conduct an environmental scan on the educational experience pertaining to mental health and psychosocial risks.

We conducted an environmental scan in 2025 collecting data on requirements, educational experiences, and examination on mental health and psychosocial risks for occupational medicine residents via contacts with program directors and the chair of the subspecialty exam committee, review of the national academic half-day curriculum, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada standards and objectives, accreditation standards, and a recommended reference textbook.

Few requirements are mandated in specialty accreditation standards, mostly about mental health and addiction medicine experiences, delivered by all programs. The national academic half-day curriculum includes 8% of programmed sessions on these issues (mental health and addiction medicine diagnosis, stress models, burnout, bullying, psychosocial risks and work organization). Several additional learning experiences were noted locally such as learning modules or optional webinars.

Programs go beyond requirements and deliver educational experiences addressing psychosocial factors. Canadian academic occupational medicine specialists have been able to influence educational standards at the undergraduate level and have an opportunity to do the same with the updated residency standards. An international framework for psychosocial risks education in occupational medicine residency training may be helpful.