An Annual Urology Tutorial For Junior Doctors; Results Of A Multi-Centre Study

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. IntroductionUrology accounts for a significant proportion of acute surgical admissions. The current undergraduate and postgraduate teaching curriculum does not place a large emphasis on urology teaching or placement which is concerning. With the use of questionnaires, our multi-centre study aims to observe junior doctor's perceived confidence level in management of urological condition after the inclusion of a urology interactive tutorial in the postgraduate program.MethodsFoundation and core trainee across four district general and teaching hospitals in the UK were invited to attend a urology tutorial. Prior to the tutorial, all participants were given a questionnaire to explore their previous urology teaching exposure and their confidence level in managing urological conditions. An interactive tutorial was conducted which covered emergency urological presentations and some ward based problems. A post-tutorial questionnaire was given with the intention to observe any improvement in confidence level.ResultsA total of 68 junior doctors participated. Only 4% (n=3) had received adequate urology teaching previously. Only 1 person felt confident to competently manage all urological problems while 34% (n=23) felt capable to manage most urological presentations. All participating junior doctors were keen on extra urology teaching, with 97% (n=66) wanted the teaching to focus on emergency urology conditions. 62% (n=42) felt this will help to improve patient care and aid their future training jobs. Positive feedbacks were received after the teaching, with 93% (n=63) finding it very useful and 97% (n=66) reported an increased in confidence level. DiscussionThis multi-centre study provided supporting evidence that junior doctors do not feel adequately prepared to manage urological conditions in the acute setting. We observed that junior doctor's confidence level in managing such presentations can be improved with an inclusion of a teaching supplementation. We propose the inclusion of urology teaching in the foundation program teaching curricula.