MFOM Written study guide
MFOM Written · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The MFOM Written examination is the written component of the assessment route to Membership of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, the UK faculty of the Royal College of Physicians that sets standards for the specialty. It is intended for doctors in occupational medicine training, or those working in the field, who need to show a broad and applied knowledge of the discipline before moving on to the later stages of Membership. The MFOM Written study guide has 5 sections and about 1,625 words.
01Occupational medicine clinical practice and health assessment
Occupational medicine questions usually hinge on whether work caused, aggravated or merely coexists with a condition. The occupational history must capture current and previous job titles, the actual tasks performed (not the label), the materials handled with safety data sheets, the pattern of controls and PPE, and - critically - the temporal relationship between exposure and symptoms.
328 words, about 2 min02Occupational hazards, toxicology and exposure assessment
Toxicology in occupational practice is mostly about dose at the target organ , not the label on the drum. Four routes matter - inhalation, dermal absorption, ingestion and (rarely) injection - and the dermal route is the one most often overlooked, particularly for pesticides, solvents, cutting oils and amines.
330 words, about 2 min03Law, ethics and occupational health service delivery
Occupational physicians serve both worker and employer, and questions test whether you keep that boundary. The legal spine in the UK is the Health and Safety at Work etc.
325 words, about 2 min04Fitness for work, rehabilitation and disability assessment
Fitness for work is not a property of a person but a relationship between functional capacity, the demands of a specific job, and the risk to the worker and others. Start with job and task analysis : physical demands (lifting, posture, vibration, heat), sensory and cognitive demands (hearing, colour vision, vigilance, shift work), safety-critical elements, and the environment.
325 words, about 2 min05Public health, epidemiology and research methods in occupational medicine
Epidemiology questions reward precision about denominators. Prevalence is existing cases in a population; incidence is new cases per person-time.
317 words, about 2 min