[A majority of useless call of an on-call urology resident: a study of the AFUF]

Abstract

Goal: To assess the workload of an on-call urology resident at a French University Hospital.

Material: A prospective study was performed during 15 days in February 2012. The data recorded in our database regarded the resident (sex, age, time to go to work), the call (emergency, type and reason) and the person who called (grade, department).

Results: Seven centres including 18 residents participated. On average five calls were received per day [0-17]. After midnight, the resident was called less than twice (1.6). There was an actual emergency in 64% of cases [0-13]. The urology-related call motives (73%) mainly consisted in acute urine retention (AUR) and catheter problems (73), renal colic (RC) (49), acute pyelonephritis (23), and hematuria (22). Residents had to go to the hospital in 55% of AUR and catheter problems, 30% of acute pyelonephritis, 17% of RC and 14% of hematuria. The emergency department (ED) called the urology resident in 39% of cases but only 18% required the presence of the resident. A call made by a senior was more likely to be an emergency (67%) than by a resident or a nurse (51%, P=0.02).

Conclusion: The urology resident when on-call is mainly asked for an advice by the ED. Among urology-related advice, bladder catheterization problems were the most frequent. RC was the second call motive but most of the time was not an actual emergency.