Health advocacy training in urology: a Canadian survey on

Abstract

Introduction: Health advocacy is a well-defined core competency recognizedby medical education and regulatory bodies. Advocacy is stressed as a criticalcomponent of a physician’s function within his or her community andalso of performance evaluation during residency training. We sought to assessurology residents’ perceptions and attitudes toward health advocacy in residencytraining and practice.Methods: We administered an anonymous, cross-sectional, self-report questionnaireto all final-year urology residents in Canadian training programs. The surveywas closed-ended and employed a 5-point Likert scale. It was designedto assess familiarity with the concept of health advocacy and with its applicationand importance to training and practice. We used descriptive and correlativestatistics to analyze the responses, such as the availability of formaltraining and resident participation in activities involving health advocacy.Results: There was a 93% response rate among the chief residents. Most residentswere well aware of the role of the health advocate in urology, and a majority(68%) believed it is important in residency training and in the urologist’s rolein practice. This is in stark contrast to acknowledged participation and formaltraining in health advocacy. A minority (7%–25%) agreed that formal trainingor mentorship in health advocacy was available at their institution, and only21%–39% felt that they had used its principles in the clinic or community. Only4%–7% of residents surveyed were aware of or had participated in local urologicalhealth advocacy groups.Conclusion: Despite knowledge about and acceptance of the importance ofthe health advocate role, there is a perceived lack of formal training and a dearthof participation during urological residency training.