TEACHING OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES IN UKRAINE DURING WARTIME: CHALLENGES, RESOURCES, AND DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/eddiscourses/2026-3-27Keywords:
medical education, occupational diseases, occupational pathology, case-based learning, clinical education, wartime disruptionAbstract
Specialized clinical disciplines may be difficult to sustain when disruption limits access to relevant patients, expert diagnostic pathways, and bedside-based learning. Occupational diseases education is an illustrative example because it requires integration of clinical manifestations, exposure history, occupational hygiene, prevention, and expert causality assessment. We conducted a national cross-sectional teaching-unit needs assessment of Ukrainian occupational diseases education during the 2025/2026 academic year. A structured electronic questionnaire was distributed through institutional e-mail channels and professional contacts before a national academic meeting. The survey captured teaching-unit profile, delivery format, student load, staffing, access to clinical material, digital infrastructure, resources, perceived barriers, and proposed solutions. Twenty-six valid teaching-unit responses were analysed. Teaching was delivered predominantly offline in 11/26 units (42.3%), hybrid in 8/26 (30.8%), and online in 7/26 (26.9%); 15/26 (57.7%) reported at least partial digital delivery. Access to clinical learning material was uneven, ranging from inpatient occupational pathology patients and outpatient encounters to archived or simulated cases. Recurring barriers included limited specialized clinical bases, fragmented case resources, inconsistent teaching materials, heterogeneous digital infrastructure, staffing constraints, and war-related disruption. Findings show how a specialized clinical discipline can remain active under wartime conditions while becoming highly dependent on local clinical access and institutional capacity. A national anonymized peer-reviewed case repository may support case-based learning, clinical reasoning material, and curriculum resilience, but requires pilot evaluation.
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