Medical questionnaire

Fitness to practice Occupational Health check

You may also hear this offer condition referred to as a ‘Medical’, ‘Fitness to Practice’, ‘Occupational Health Check’ or ‘Occupational Health Assessment’.

The fitness to practice Occupational Health check is to ensure that you are able to take part in all aspects of your course, both academically and on placement. Courses requiring this check include Midwifery, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Paramedic Science, Physiotherapy, Teacher Training courses, Operational Department Practice, Diagnostic Radiography and Speech and Language Therapy.

The fitness to practice check is required as these courses lead to a professional registration. The courses and subsequent professional roles, are both physically and mentally taxing and each have their own specific skills and requirements. The assessment is tailored to the requirements and risks of each course and will highlight where the work could impact on an existing medical or psychological condition, whilst providing recommendations on reasonable adjustments that could be made to support you on the course/placement. If you have passed your interview and received a conditional offer from us, we will request consent from you to pass your details to Innovate. This is a UK-based provider of occupational health services, used by York St John to provide the occupational health assessments. This process begins in the spring, alongside the DBS processes. Innovate provides a wide range of occupational health (OH) services for our staff, students and applicants.

Once we have your consent, we will set you up on their system and you will receive a questionnaire, directly from Innovate. Upon completion of this, a member of the Innovate OH Team will begin your Occupational Health Assessment. They may feel that your response requires further discussion, whichwill be organised with you individually, via telephone or online. It may be that once your assessment is complete, Innovate recommend adjustments that could be implemented for you to access the course/placement successfully. If this is the case, the university academic and disability teams will review these and come to an agreement on the outcome. This will be discussed with you and you will not receive your course clearance until it has been agreed. This Occupational Health process has been created to ensure that you and those around you on your course are well supported and able to achieve. However, please be aware that it may not be possible to implement all adjustments recommended by Innovate.

Please note that being accepted for support by the Disability Support and Inclusion team is not a replacement for the Fitness to Practice check. The Disability Support and Inclusion team do not assess your fitness to teach or practice.

For Health courses only

You will also need to complete a Fitness for Placement Check. All health courses require certain vaccinations to be taken prior to placements. You will need to provide your vaccination record as part of the process with Innovate and undertake any missing or out of date vaccinations to meet this check. We run a vaccination clinic at the university during the first week of term and you will be able to receive vaccinations and complete this check at that point. You are also welcome to undertake them prior to attending university if you wish. As stated, the Placement Check is also completed via Innovate and you will be sent information directly from Innovate/the university once your course clearance is complete. Please note that different courses require different vaccinations to be in place.

Whilst the Fitness for Placement check does not need to be completed before the course starts, it must be done before you can go on placement. Please note that if this check is not completed, you will not be able to attend placement and all placements need to be completed successfully in order for you to pass the course.

For further information, please see the health screening and vaccinations page.