Trends in urology graduate medical education: a brief update from the Urology Residency Review Committee

Abstract

Purpose: This communication clarifies recent trends with regard to the number and configuration of urology training programs, and more precisely describes recent variations in the number of urology residents in training.

Materials and methods: We reviewed and analyzed longitudinal data from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education regarding the number of urology resident positions as well as the number and format of urology training programs in the United States. Several publications related to general and urological graduate medical education were also reviewed.

Results: In response to various accreditation and demographic forces the total number of urology residency training programs has decreased by more than 20% since 1982. Coincident with this decrease was a transition in urology resident education away from smaller preceptor based programs and toward the current model of larger, broad based training programs anchored by academic medical centers. The educational format of most residency programs has also evolved, such that in 2003 all except 1 accredited program required 4 years of education in the clinical and basic urological sciences. For most programs this shift coincided with a decrease in the duration of pre-urological general surgical training. The number of first year urology residents decreased progressively between 1994 and 1998 before stabilizing at the current level of approximately 250 first year positions. In 2003 the total number of urologists in training was actually higher than it had been for most of the last decade.

Conclusions: We describe recent trends in urological graduate medical education. The observations reported suggest that our specialty has maintained its focus on training a consistent number of high quality urological surgeons.