Setting up a Urology Emergency Skills Course

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Background

Exposure to Urology is under-represented at medical school and studies have shown that up to a third do not feel confident managing urological emergencies. Many junior doctors will never rotate through Urology during their training; however, urological emergencies such as urinary retention can happen to any patient, in any specialty, at any time.

Aim

Urology emergency skills are not difficult to learn and by increasing exposure in a controlled environment with highly experienced trainers we hoped to improve attender’s confidence at managing these common situations and reduce the burden upon a busy acute urology service.

Method

Our brief for the course was that it should be free, convenient (not requiring study leave) and open to all. The faculty for the course were the urology registrars providing training on 4 areas: simple/complex catheterisation, suprapubic catheterisation, haematuria/bladder washout & nephrostomy management. Equipment and facilities were provided by the Sandford Education Centre. Models were provided by Mediplus.

Results

20 people attended the course on May 29th which ran from 6.30-9pm with attenders ranging from junior doctors to HCAs. It ran smoothly and we received excellent feedback with 100% of attenders saying they would recommend the course to a colleague.

Next steps

Looking forward, the Urology themed core trainees will organise the course which will provide excellent experience and help with specialty interviews. There are several departments that we think would benefit from the course, in particular ED & community healthcare. We are therefore running another course in August and intend to hold several courses each year.