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FEATURES A Day in the Life of a Urologist


By Mátyás Jakab Recently, I had the pleasure of sit- ting down with and interviewing Dr. Laura Derbyshire, an ST3 in Urology in the North West deanery.


What aspects of the specialty made you choose urology?


I have had an interest in Urology


since doing a placement as a third year medical student. I loved the variation of working between the ward, clinic and theatre. It was the first time I had experienced a surgical specialty and loved being in theatre and watching the operations. I did my first skin in- cision under close supervision by the senior registrar to insert a testicular implant! Urology has fascinated me ever since. They are often very per- sonal problems that people come with and we can make a real difference to people’s quality of life by solving them. We do many of the investiga- tions within our department and can also manage conditions medically as well as surgically so it is not always straight to an operation.


How early did you start to work to- wards a career in urology?


I did placements in related special-


ties whilst at medical school such as General, O+G, GUM and Renal. I kept in contact with the Urologists I had met initially and got involved in projects they had going on. I remem- ber sitting in the office putting letters into envelopes for hours on end, but it was worth it to have my name on a published paper! I then contacted Urologists in the hospital I was work- ing in once I qualified and did more audit, research and teaching. I en- sured I would get jobs that included Urology, initially an academic foun- dation post with the research in Urol- ogy, and then a themed core surgical job doing 18 months of Urology.


If a medical student has a particu- lar interest in urology, what would you advise they do to nurture this? Ensure it is the subject you like, so go and do it in different places and imagine doing it 24/7. Work out the training pathways and think about


what this means for your personal life. Are you happy to be placed in other surgical specialties that aren’t Urology? Do you want to be doing on calls at 32? But once you are happy it is what you want you need to get to theatre as much as possible and build your CV. Do this gradually and do not leave it till you qualify. As a stu- dent you have so much more time to do projects and if you are in clinic or theatre and keen, you will get given opportunities.


Urology seems to be specialty dom- inated by males (both as doctors and patients), and the job involves investigations of sensitive body ar- eas. Does being a female urologist pose any particular challenges? Good question! I have never had


a male or female patient refuse to see me because of my gender. I think it is up to us to make patients feel at ease as it is usually a very personal issue they have come with. Some men, usu- ally older, have said to me they would prefer to see a member of the opposite sex presumably because admitting certain things to a woman is easier. I think as long as we are sensitive to the fact it may be issue it isn’t a problem, most patients just want the best per- son for the job and the stereotype of the male surgeons is now changing. Urology is one of the surgical special- ties with the highest proportion of fe- male trainees so ironically we are at the forefront of becoming more gen- der equal.


And what would you say to female medical students considering the specialty?


I would say if a female medi- cal student wants to do surgery then go for it! Do consider the impact on your personal life as you won’t have the same lifestyle as a GP trainee for instance. But if you love surgery the there is no reason you can’t do it. There is increasing political aware- ness of females being in surgery and the way less than full time training works is being sorted out by those going before you, with the support of the Association Surgeons in Train- ing (ASiT) and the Royal Colleges (for examples the WinS group) so it should be easier once you get there if you want to mix work and family.


Dr. Laura Derbyshire


In keeping with the title of the col- umn we are doing the interview for, could you give an outline of a stand- ard day/week for someone working in urology?


As a registrar, my Monday is thea- tre all day so I’m in at 7.30 to consent the patients and make sure I know about them. Tuesday is clinic in the morning, so I’ll come in at 8am and do my administration then start at 9. From noon is the multidisciplinary team and then after this I catch up on admin again such as checking let- ters I have dictated, seeing ward re- ferrals and reading about conditions I have seen. I also have to complete my surgical logbook and fill in as- sessments. Wednesday is clinic in the morning then theatre in the afternoon, Thursday is the same but the morn- ing clinic is the 2-week wait clinic so we do flexible cystoscopies if needed. Thursday afternoon theatre is daycase as so there are lots of cases I can do by myself (with the consultant around if needed). Friday is our x-ray meet- ing in the morning so we go through imaging with the radiologist and de- cide on patient management plans. Then we do a big consultant ward round and then I have theatre in the afternoon. On top of this plan I have regional teaching every other week, so I head down to Withington for the afternoon, and 24 hour on calls so I deal with any emergencies coming into the hospital that require immedi- ate attention. There are also a number of free sessions available to ensure that we don’t work an unsafe amount of hours.


For the full interview visit http://manmedsoc.com/urologyday


PACEMAKER - TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014


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