In a newly published paper in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Education andTraining to Build Capacity in Total Worker Health®: Proposed Competencies for an Emerging Field, our group of experts in the field of Total Worker Health (TWH) have proposed the first set of core competencies for training professionals entering this discipline. Speaking as director of a NIOSH Education and Research Center (Mountain and Plains ERC) and director of one of NIOSH’s six TWH Centers of Excellence, the work has already begun—we are actively integrating TWH into occupational safety and health (OSH) curricula.
Several major universities, including my own, have already implemented graduate level TWH Certificate programs, graduate degree tracks, and professional development opportunities, heightening the need for standardized competencies for trainees.