ABSTRACT
The future supply of urologists is not on pace to account for future demands of urologic care. This impending urologic shortage sits on a backdrop of multiple other workforce issues. In this review, we take an in-depth look at several pressing issues facing the urologic workforce, including the impending urology shortage, gender and diversity concerns, growing levels of burnout, and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In doing so, we highlight specific areas of clinical practice that may need to be addressed from a health care policy standpoint.
Subject(s)
Urologists/supply & distribution , Urology , Burnout, Professional/epidemiology , COVID-19/epidemiology , Female , Humans , Male , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2 , United States/epidemiologyABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has caused tens of thousands of deaths in Spain and has managed to breakdown the healthcare system hospitals in the Community of Madrid, largely due to its tendency to cause severe pneumonia, requiring ventilatory support. This fact has caused our center to collapse, with 130% of its beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, thus causing the absolute cessation of activity of the urology service, the practical disappearance of resident training programs, and the incorporation of a good part of the urology staff into the group of medical personnel attending these patients. In order to recover from this extraordinary level of suspended activity, we will be obliged to prioritize pathologies based on purely clinical criteria, for which tables including the relevance of each pathology within each area of urology are being proposed. Technology tools such as online training courses or surgical simulators may be convenient for the necessary reestablishment of resident education.