Program Learning Outcomes - Work Disability Prevention, Graduate Diploma

By the end of the program, students graduating will be able to:

• Differentiate between the Work Disability Paradigm and the Healthcare Paradigm and understand their consequences for guiding appropriate action.
• Apply the work disability paradigm to the diagnosis and management of work-disabled workers/patients.
• Recognize the way psychological, social and environmental factors may participate to the development of work disability.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the workplace, insurance and regulatory systems influencing and governing relationships among stakeholders.
• Evaluate the environmental, social and workplace factors that influence work readiness.
• Analyze the growing evidence and current research in the field.
• Analyze and apply new evidence in the development of return-to-work strategies.
• Assess the work disability situation to identify barriers and facilitators to work reintegration using standardized and non-standardized methods.
• Create effective RTW strategies that foster mutual understanding and integrate information from key stakeholders, the environment and applicable regulations.
• Communicate effectively with disabled workers, workplace and insurance parties.
• Use interview techniques to clarify worker motivation and resolve ambivalence regarding return-to-work decisions.
• Negotiate agreements for work reintegration programs.
• Analyze key indicators for RTW progress from the implementation, evaluation and revision (as required) of a realistic RTW program in collaboration with the worker, the workplace and other.
• Communicate information, arguments, methods and analyses effectively, orally and in writing, to a range of audiences.
• Establish effective professional relationships among workers, employers and social support networks related to disability prevention and return-to-work processes utilizing principled negotiation strategies.
• Define the limits of their own knowledge.
• Describe the current limits/gaps of knowledge in the discipline as a whole.
• Hypothesize on evolving alternate ideas, methods and interpretations that can usefully contribute to the further development of their own ideas, methods and interpretations.
• Demonstrate qualities and skills appropriate to effective employment and community involvement in the RTW process.
• Work with others effectively by exercising initiative, personal responsibility and accountability in both individual and group contexts.
• Make decisions in complex contexts.
• Engage in continual self-learning including any need for coursework inside and outside the discipline.
• Exhibit behaviour consistent with academic integrity and social responsibility, as seen through coursework, thesis work, and interactions with students, faculty, and the university and civic communities.