Mina Guirgis^1,2,4*, Mark Ibraheem³ and Peter Hewett⁴

¹Department of General Surgery, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Western Australia
²School of Medicine, University of Otago, Canterbury, New Zealand
³Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia
⁴Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, South Australia

*Corresponding Author: Mina Guirgis, Department of General Surgery, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Western Australia.

Received: January 20, 2025; Published: April 24, 2025

Abstract

Ergonomics is the discipline of analysing the interactions between humans and elements within their environment. Although educational institutes, workplaces and professions offer ergonomics-specific education and employ occupational health and safety officers to implement and oversee such practices, this important discipline is almost never taught to medical students and junior medical staff. In Australia, almost all medical universities now require undergraduate experience prior to commencing medical school. The youngest age for commencing medical school has now shifted from 17 to 21, with the large proportion of students in their final year ranging between 25-29, at least 2-4 years older than graduates from the 1990s-2000s. In 2021, almost 14% of final year Australian medical students were above 30 with a considerable proportion over 40 years old (Medical, 2022) [3]. Similar trends are being seen in Europe and North America. Such demographical shifts highlight the importance of ergonomics in reducing workplace injuries to enhance career productivity and longevity. Yet there is not nearly enough focus on dedicated and specific ergonomics education and training from medical schools and hospitals. This paper highlights such issues and serves as a guide on ways to implement such change.

 Keywords: Ergonomics; Workplace; Doctors

References

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Citation

Citation: Mina Guirgis., et al. “Improving Ergonomics Education for Medical Students and Doctors”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 9.5 (2025): 158-160.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2025 Mina Guirgis., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.