Advanced training of a practicing urologist in stone disease management

Abstract

Surgical training encourages the development of cognitive, clinical, and technical skills that are acquired traditionally through mentoring. Increasing pressures from the demands on clinicians to increase productivity, the resident work hour restrictions, the increased cost associated with trainee involvement in the operating room, the complexity of patients seen in tertiary care centers, and the overall goal of decreasing patients’ morbidity and mortality all make the acquisition of the necessary technical skills in the operating room more difficult nowadays. Therefore, in an effort to address this aspect of learning for minimally invasive surgery techniques such as endourology and laparoscopy, alternative methods of training including simulated teaching environments that allow for acquisition of technical skills outside the operating room and also new educational programs, courses, workshops, observerships, and fellowships have been developed to overcome these educational challenges.