Discussion Points for Developing Support System for Inclusion of Healthcare Students with Disabilities / 医学教育

The number of students with disabilities is increasing in healthcare and other fields. However, support systems have yet to progress, and faculty and staff often find it difficult in the field. About 10% of medical students in the United States report that they have a disability, and reasonable accommodation is provided in didactic, lab, and clinical setting. The government and others have indicated support policies for students with disabilities, and a large-scale survey of healthcare providers with disabilities has been conducted, and the issues have been clarified. This section introduces specific examples of support and reasonable accommodation for students with disabilities overseas. It is thought that the training of students with disabilities and their employment will facilitate diversity among healthcare professionals and improve the quality of healthcare. There is an urgent need to understand the overall picture of healthcare students with disabilities in Japan and to develop support systems for their inclusion.

Basic Understanding of Support for Students Who Have Developmental Disorders at Medical Training Institutions / 医学教育

The Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities stipulates that medical training institutions need to offer the provision of Reasonable Accommodation to students with developmental disorders and/or related characteristics.　Reasonable Accommodation is the consideration to guarantee the rights of students with developmental disorders; thus, educational institutions have an obligation to provide this Reasonable Accommodation.　In this paper, we outlined specific support for students with developmental disabilities and related characteristics in medical training institutions from the aspects of “enrollment,” “university education,” and “employment.”　Essential ways to support students with developmental disorders and related characteristics include the presentation of clear criteria, mutual cooperation, and collaboration between faculty members and administrative staff, as well as understanding the basics of how to interact with such students.

Discriminating Function of Preemployment Medical Examination and Necessity of Changing over to Preplacement Medical Examination in Korea / 대한산업의학회지

In Korea, every worker should undergo a preemployment medical examination according to Law for Occupational Safety and Health. But evaluation of it has not been previously carried out. Thus a telephone survey of 213 establishments of Inchon area for evaluation of preemployment medical examination in Korea was conducted. One hundred and fourteen companies(46.5% of all the subjects) were examined medically on preemployment, 47 establishments(41.2% of this study subjects) reevaluated workers by each establishment's medical criteria, and only less than half of diseased workers(DM 38.6% ; hypertension 42.1%, HBV carrier 28.0 % ; active pulmonary tuberculosis 7.9 %; back pain 12.3 %, and noise induced hearing loss 18.4 %) were employed. Employee's fees for preemployment medical examination were covered by 53.5 % of all the subjects. From our survey, it is clear that preemployment medical examination plays discriminating role on the employment of workers based on health status. We thus proposed to change over from preemployment medical examination to preplacement examination based on the evaluation of essential job functions and reasonable accommodation.