Interdisciplinary Coordination

Modern occupational and environmental health and safety problems are often complex and involve multiple disciplines. RMCOEH graduates are typically leading or embedded in multidisciplinary teams. Thus, RMCOEH sees equipping our trainees with interdisciplinary problems-solving skillsets as essential to their future success. We develop these skills through multiple courses and experiences at our RMCOEH headquarters building. These include core courses, which are specific to occupational and environmental health and safety and typically include multidisciplinary problem-solving. Examples of these courses include the foundational Occupational Epidemiology course (OEHS 6370), which heavily focuses on occupational and environmental health-specific topics that are not often taught in generic epidemiology courses, and the required core Applied Occupational Biostatistics course (OEHS 6000), which includes lab stats that are common in occupational and environmental health but infrequently used in other disciplines. The core Administration and Management of Health and Safety Programs course (OEHS 6760), meanwhile, develops skills critical to becoming an outstanding occupational and environmental health manager, a level to which most RMCOEH trainees rise within a couple years of graduation. A matrix of some of the ways RMCOEH achieves its goals regarding interdisciplinary education for graduates is below.

Occupational Safety and Health Solutions Course

The best example of the intensity with which we pursue interdisciplinary training is the further evolution of our capstone course, Occupational Safety and Health Solutions (OEHS 6715; MEEN 6960-3), taught since 2007. Three RMCOEH faculty representing three of our core programs work together to implement the course. Real businesses present their occupational and environmental health and safety problems to trainees working in interdisciplinary teams. The students solve the problems under close, interdisciplinary faculty supervision. They return the solutions to the businesses in professional written and oral presentations.

Interdisciplinary Interactions Matrix