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DOccMed viva questions
DOccMed viva questions: what examiners ask and how to answer
The DOccMed viva is a discussion of your own portfolio, so there is no fixed list of questions. Examiners return to the same six themes: why you chose your cases, the workplace and its risks, fitness for work, the law, ethics and confidentiality, and what you would do differently. This page gives example questions for each theme and a simple way to structure your answers.
Last reviewed October 2026
How does the DOccMed viva work?
The viva is part of DOccMed Part 2. You submit a portfolio made up of a Workplace Assessment and a Clinical Case, then discuss it with examiners. For this year's viva dates, see DOccMed exam dates.
The examiners are not testing whether you can recall facts. They want to see whether you think like an occupational physician: whether you can explain and defend your decisions, link them to the work, and give advice that is practical and safe.
Because the questions come from your own cases, the best preparation is knowing your portfolio well and practising your answers out loud. Memorising model answers does not help much.
What types of question are asked in the DOccMed viva?
Viva questions about your portfolio fall into three groups.
1. Questions that confirm the work is yours
- Checking that you wrote the portfolio yourself
- Establishing what your role was in the case or assessment
- Understanding the setting in which you saw the case
2. Questions about your case
- How you approached the case or assessment
- How you reached your decisions
- The clinical reasoning behind them
3. Questions that apply your knowledge
- Linking your case to the relevant legislation and guidance
- Your grasp of wider occupational health principles
- Using what you know in a practical, real workplace setting
Expect follow up questions. Examiners use them to test how deep your understanding goes. If you know these themes in advance, you can answer calmly and show that you apply occupational medicine principles with confidence.
What do DOccMed viva examiners ask about?
These are the themes examiners come back to, with example questions. Try answering each one out loud using your own cases.
Your choice of cases
Tests: Whether your cases raise genuine occupational questions.
- Why did you choose this workplace for your assessment?
- What made this clinical case occupationally interesting?
- What would you have done if this case had arrived in your first week in post?
Strong answer: A strong answer shows you chose the cases because they raised real occupational questions, not because they were convenient.
The workplace, hazards and risk
Tests: How well you observe a new workplace and pick out its health and safety priorities.
- What is the difference between a hazard and a risk?
- What hazards did you find in the workplace you assessed?
- How did you decide which risks were high and which were low?
- How do control measures change the level of risk?
- What are the main steps in a workplace risk assessment?
- What documents did you look at before the visit?
- How did you involve employees during the visit?
Strong answer: A strong answer explains why you ranked the risks as you did. Listing hazards or labelling them high, medium, or low is not enough.
Fitness for work and adjustments
Tests: Whether your recommendations are practical, based on evidence, and balance the employee's health needs with what the employer needs.
- How did you assess this person's fitness for work?
- What adjustments did you recommend, and were they reasonable for this employer?
- What other options could you have considered?
- How did you put your recommendations across to the employer?
- What follow up did you arrange?
Strong answer: A strong answer is about function and the demands of the job. Diagnosis and treatment alone do not answer the question.
Law and the employer's duties
Tests: Whether you can apply the relevant legal frameworks to your own case.
- Which legal frameworks applied to this case?
- Is this employee likely to be covered by the disability provisions of the Equality Act 2010, and what follows if so?
- Would anything in this case be reportable, and by whom?
Strong answer: A strong answer applies the law to your case, at the level a doctor needs to advise a manager. Reciting the regulations is not enough.
Ethics, consent and confidentiality
Tests: Your grasp of the ethical principles behind occupational health practice.
- Were there any ethical dilemmas in this case, and how did you deal with them?
- How did you balance what the employer needed with what the employee needed?
- How did you handle confidentiality?
- How did you obtain consent for your report?
- What would you do if the employee asked you not to send the report?
Strong answer: A strong answer shows you know what can be shared, with whom, and on what basis, and that you can say it in plain language.
Reflection and limits
Tests: Whether you can judge your own work honestly and know when to ask for help.
- What would you do differently if you saw this case again?
- Where were the limits of your own competence in this case?
- What happened after your follow up?
Strong answer: A strong answer is honest about what you would do differently, and it knows when to seek advice.
Knowing the questions is the easy part. The viva tests whether you can answer them clearly about your own cases, under follow up. That is hard to judge on your own.
How should you structure a viva answer?
A simple three step structure keeps answers short and occupational.
- Answer the question. Give your answer in the first sentence. “I advised a phased return with no night shifts for six weeks.”
- Give the reasoning. Link it to function, the demands of the job, and risk. Say why, using details from your case.
- Say what would change it. Name the review point, the follow up, or the new information that would change your advice.
What are the common mistakes in the DOccMed viva?
- Answering a clinical question when an occupational one was asked. Talking through diagnosis and treatment when the examiner asked about work. Bring every answer back to function, risk, and the job.
- Long, unfocused answers. Saying everything you know in the hope that the right point is in there somewhere. Give the main point first, then the reasoning, then stop.
- Not knowing your own portfolio. Hesitating over details of cases you wrote months ago. Reread both components in full in the week before the viva.
- Defending a weak decision too hard. Insisting on a recommendation that was not quite right. It is better to say what you would change and why.
- Advice that is not practical. Recommending adjustments the employer could not realistically make. Examiners want advice that would work in a real workplace.
How should you prepare in the last two weeks?
- Reread your Workplace Assessment and Clinical Case in full, as if you were the examiner.
- Write down the weakest decision in each component and prepare an honest answer about what you would change.
- Practise answering the questions above out loud. If you can, have someone ask follow ups.
- Time your answers. Most should take under a minute before the examiner moves on or asks a follow up.
- Check the practical arrangements for an online viva: connection, camera, a quiet room, and your ID.
For a fuller overview of preparing for the viva, see what DOccMed examiners want to see in the viva or the DOccMed preparation guide.
Common questions
What questions are asked in the DOccMed viva?
The DOccMed viva is a discussion of the portfolio you submitted: your Workplace Assessment and your Clinical Case. There is no fixed question bank. Questions fall into three groups: confirming the work is yours, exploring how you approached the case and reached your decisions, and applying legislation and occupational health principles to it. Common themes include why you chose the cases, how you assessed hazards and risk, the law that applies, fitness for work and adjustments, ethics, consent and confidentiality, and what you would do differently.
Can I predict the exact viva questions?
No. The questions come from your own portfolio, so every candidate's viva is different. You can predict the themes, though, and practise answering out loud on each theme using your own cases.
How long is the DOccMed viva and is it online?
The format, length, and dates are set by the Faculty of Occupational Medicine and can change between sittings. Diploma vivas are currently held online over MS Teams. Check fom.ac.uk for the current format for your sitting.
How should I structure a viva answer?
Start with a direct answer to the question. Then give the occupational reasoning behind it, linked to your case. Then say what would change your view or what you would do next. Two or three sentences per step is usually enough.
How should I prepare for the DOccMed viva in the last two weeks?
Reread your Workplace Assessment and Clinical Case in full. List the weakest decision in each and prepare an honest answer about it. Then practise answering likely questions out loud, ideally with someone asking follow ups, rather than rehearsing silently.
Viva format and dates are set by the Faculty of Occupational Medicine and can change. Confirm the arrangements for your sitting at fom.ac.uk.
Practise these questions on your own portfolio
The DOccMed viva preparation tool asks viva style questions based on your own Workplace Assessment and Clinical Case, then gives structured feedback on how clearly you explained and defended your reasoning.