Ozan Bozkurt

and 52 more

Objective: To present a nation-wide analysis of the workload of urology departments in Turkey week-by-week during Covid-19 pandemic. Methodology: The centers participating in the study were divided into three groups as tertiary referral centers, state hospitals and private practice hospitals. The number of outpatients, inpatients, daily interventions and urological surgeries were recorded prospectively between 9-March-2020 and 31-May-2020. All these variables were recorded for the same time interval of 2019 as well. The weekly change of the workload of urology during pandemic period was evaluated; also the workload of urology and the distributions of certain urological surgeries were compared between the pandemic period and the same time interval of the year 2019. Results: A total of 51 centers participated in the study. The number of outpatients, inpatients, urological surgeries and daily interventions were found to be dramatically decreased by the third week of pandemics in state hospitals and tertiary referral centers; however the daily urological practice were similar in private practice hospitals throughout the pandemic period. When the workload of urology in pandemic period and the same time interval of the year 2019 were compared; a huge decrease was observed in all variables during pandemic period. However, temporary measures like ureteral stenting, nephrostomy placement and percutaneous cystostomy have been found to increase during Covid-19 pandemic compared to normal life. Conclusions: Covid-19 pandemic significantly effected the routine daily urological practice likewise other subspecialties and priority was given to emergent and non-deferrable surgeries by urologists in concordance with published clinical guidelines.

Volkan Sen

and 9 more

Objectives: There is no standardized and up-to-date education model for urology residents in our country. We aimed to describe our National E learning education model for urology residents. Methodology: The ERTP working group; consisting of urologists was established by Society of Urological Surgery to create E-learning model and curriculum at April 2018. Learning objectives were set up in order to determine and standardize the contents of the presentations. In accordance with the Bloom Taxonomy, 834 learning objectives were created for a total of 90 lectures (18 lectures for each PGY year). Totally 90 videos were shoot by specialized instructors and webcasts were prepared. Webcasts were posted at uropedia.com.tr, which is the web library of Society of Urological Surgery. Satisfaction of residents and instructors was evaluated with feedbacks. An assessment of knowledge was measured with multiple-choice exam. Results: A total of 43 centers and 250 urology residents were included in ERTP during the academic year 2018/2019. There were 93/38/43/34/25 urology residents at 1st/2nd/3rd/4th and 5th year of residency, respectively. Majority of the residents (99.1%) completed the ERTP. The overall satisfaction rate of residents and instructors were 4,29 and 4,67(min:1 so bad, max:5 so good). An assessment exam was performed to urology residents at the end of the ERTP and the mean score was calculated as 57.99 points (min:20, max:82). Conclusion: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the educational programs had to move online platforms. We used this reliable and easily accessible e-learning platform for standardization of training in urology on national basis. We aim to share this model with international residency training programs.