Abstract
Background & Purpose
Urological emergencies are often neglected at medical school which can inevitably lead to underconfident junior doctors and poorer patient outcomes. Leicester Medical School introduced urological emergencies in the second year; however, limited content is incorporated in the students’ workbooks. As a result, junior doctors acting as clinical teaching fellows (CTFs) often have little exposure and experience in teaching these topics.
Methodology
CTFs answered a questionnaire surrounding their confidence levels in teaching urological emergencies after they had first facilitated the urinary module. A formal teaching session on acute urological emergencies, given by a urology trainee, was performed and confidence levels were then reassessed.
Results
There was a significant increase in confidence levels after the CTFs had receiving formal teaching (mean confidence score: 8.6/10). This is in contrast to the minimal difference perceived by CTFs before and after they had taught the urinary module for the first time (mean confidence score: 5.5/10 vs 6.1/10).
Discussion & Conclusion
Urology is a speciality that notoriously receives little attention in the undergraduate curriculum, yet it makes up a significant portion of the workload for junior doctors. These results suggest that junior doctors may require additional, expert training before they feel confident enough to teach on urological emergencies, but it also highlights the lack of topics surrounding urological emergencies in the medical curriculum. Changes to the curriculum and workbook are essential and have been addressed.
Author Information
Anton Wong, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
Alex Hammant, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
Jane Goodfellow, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
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