Urology Clinical Posting: Life of a Year 3 Medical Student

Instead of doing a “Week in the Life” as for the Internal Medicine clinical rotations, I’ve switched to just sharing about the posting in general! And also ending off with thoughts on the specialty itself (in case you’re considering it or just want to find out more, haha).

Contents hide

What Urology Clinical Posting is Like

The Highlights of Urology Posting

The Lowlights of Urology Posting

Overall Impressions of Urology as a Specialty

ONE Example of Something You Might See in Urology

What Urology Clinical Posting is Like

Generally, in a Uro posting we have a mix of OT (operating theatre), clinics, ward rounds, and tutorials.

OT: Just like all other surgical specialties, if you’re interested, you can hop into the OT to watch the surgeries. Since our Uro posting was only one week, and I wasn’t particularly interested in it as a specialty, I didn’t want to squander several hours in the OT. However I did watch some procedures in clinic.
Clinics: Unlike Ortho or GS, Uro clinics are not divided into subspecialties. It’s just Uro clinic.
Ward rounds: The rounds are probably shorter than for Internal Medicine subspecialties? Maybe around an hour on average. Nothing too exciting.
Tutorials: We didn’t really have scheduled teachings for Uro during our posting, but we managed to arrange one with the doctor we were attached to.

The Highlights of Urology Posting

The highlights of Urology posting for me were:

Seeing the urological procedures. Urology is a procedure-heavy specialty by nature, and getting to see some of these in real life was quite eye-opening.
Asking questions. I was glad I managed to study some stuff beforehand, and therefore went to the posting with questions. (On my Word document I keep a “dumb questions” list. This is for me to note down random questions I have and remember to ask the consultants.) This was my biggest takeaway from ward rounds and clinics. Otherwise I feel like I may not have learnt that much.
Learning about the urological conditions. Even though Urology is a specialty I never considered, I still enjoyed learning about all the various conditions. It’s essential medical knowledge and also at interplay with other specialties in medicine.

The Lowlights of Urology Posting

These are not really ‘lowlights’, but the not-so-highlights of Uro posting:

A lot to learn in very little time. Our Uro posting was only one week, and as you can imagine, the content is not sparse. Uro is, after all, a whole specialty on its own. (But I still think one week is okay, haha – see point 2.)
Not my area of interest. This is not a lowlight by the way! I can’t really think of anything else. As mentioned, I did actually enjoy learning about the conditions! Okay but I guess the procedures and cases don’t excite me as much inherently.

Overall Impressions of Urology as a Specialty

It’s one of those specialties they reckon girls should never consider doing (and hence, it wasn’t in my purview either). But there are definitely female urologists! And, contrary to popular belief, urological patients are not all males. For instance, ureteral obstruction and bladder cancer can affect women too. (And hence I was thinking, it’s nice to have some female urologists in the field! Female patients may feel a sense of kinship or slightly more comfortable with a female physician.)

The general sense I got was that urologists are very good-natured people. I was extremely impressed by the doctor I was attached to for the short one-week posting. It was not anything mind-blowing or life-altering. It was his professionalism, patience, and dedication. Not just to his patients but to his colleagues and us medical students. There’s one encounter I just have to mention:

Our doctor had 27 patients for his morning clinic (and still had afternoon clinic later with an equally insane patient load). This meant that if any consultation took more than 10 minutes, the whole clinic would overrun. It was mid-morning and the clinic was already overrunning. Badly.

Then in came an elderly patient in a wheelchair. The patient was rather mad and kept going on in an indignant tone about how he wanted his catheter to be removed and so on.

The patient was speaking in Mandarin, and from previous consults one could already tell that our doctor’s Mandarin was slightly stilted. Yet our doctor was very patient with this elderly gentleman. He explained things very clearly and patiently, never bothered by having to repeat himself, and took great pains to allay the patients concerns. He also took time to address the patient’s son.

For this consultation (which dragged on to probably half an hour) and all those that came before, he was always fully present with the patient, looking them in the eye, making sure they had all the information and care they needed.

The clinic itself was boring (sorry) but I was truly inspired by our doctor’s professionalism. I just thought wow there’s so much to emulate. And I’m so thankful for these dedicated and competent people who are in this specialty (that I wouldn’t go into, haha).

Besides my tutor for the posting, my other impression is derived from two urologists who came to give us teachings at school. Both had a great sense of humour. They were cracking jokes that made us all laugh. So, generally, very good-spirited people.

ONE Example of Something You Might See in Urology

Indwelling urinary catheter (IDC) — Indwelling catheter (used to drain urine)
(Image source: Medical News Today)

More About Med School Life

Internal Medicine Postings

Surgery Postings

Short Postings

Pre-Clinicals

Meg says:

26 February 2023 at 10:25 PM

Hi! Firstly want to start off by saying that I’ve really been enjoying reading your specialty posts:)
As someone who is interested in medicine (applying this year!), I’m just wondering whether it’s true that it is very difficult to specialise now (especially with the government pushing for generalists), and if its true that even after specialising there is little guarantee that one can get a job as a consultant due to the saturation of specialists?
Thanks!

Reply
1. TLM says:
  
  18 March 2023 at 8:06 AM
  
  Hi Meg, thank you for your kind comment! (and sincere apologies for missing it earlier, hence the delayed reply) I’m glad you liked the posts :”) And to answer your question: I guess it’s true that Singapore is veering towards having more generalists in the field (I guess you might have seen it in the news, e.g. this article among others). It is indeed what our nation needs in terms of our health system and provision of care. However, that does not mean that we won’t have any specialists. When the time comes there will still be the opportunity to specialise if you wish to. Definitely don’t have this as a concern nor should it deter you from applying or doing med! 🙂
  
  Reply
steve smith says:

8 March 2023 at 2:02 PM

I like how you mentioned that urology would provide more details and information every day as a doctor. Yesterday, a friend of mine told me his family was hoping to find a reliable treatment for her uncle with urinary retention. He asked me if I had any idea what would be the best option to consider. I’ll be sure to tell him that it will be much better if they consult a trusted urologist as they can provide proper treatment. I’m thankful for this informative article.

Reply
1. TLM says:
  
  18 March 2023 at 7:56 AM
  
  Hi Steve, thank you for your comment! I’m glad you found it informative 🙂 Yes indeed, for any specific health issues and treatment, please do consult a certified healthcare/medical professional. Thank you!
  
  Reply
Elle Jones says:

22 March 2023 at 11:14 PM

I like how you said that as a doctor, urology would give you more specifics and information every day. My friend’s family was trying to find a trustworthy treatment for her uncle’s urinary retention, he said yesterday. He questioned me about my knowledge of the best course of action. He should consult a reputable urologist as they can offer the appropriate treatment, I’ll make sure to tell him. Thank you for this useful article.

Reply