Türkiye ESRU

About Turkey ESRU

Turkish Application of the Resident Coordination Platform Which Has Proved it's Success on International Level: "Turkey ESRU"

(www.turkiyeesru.org)

ASSEMBLY

Social facilities regarding Urology residents in Turkey was first initiated in 1996 under the supervision of "Union of Turkish Urology Residents". This union has managed to represent Turkey by sending two residents to NCO meetings held by ESRU. Apart from representing our country on international meetings, this union presented reports to Turkish Association of Urology on regular basis. European Association of Urology proposed resident coordination boards to be structured within Turkish Urology Association in 2005. By this way, connections between resident coordination boards and ESRU would be much easier and more readily available. After these regulations, national representatives played important roles in ESRU and initiated the development of a similar organization in Turkey.
In our country, there are approximately 2000 urology specialists and 500 urology residents. The number of urology residents being relatively higher than european countries (third in europe), necessitates a well-organized structure representing residents and junior specialists in our country. In order to adapt the resident coordination platform which has proved it's success on international level we constructed a regulatory document that was not published previously and compassing necessary accreditations. After presenting this regulatory document to National Urology Association during an expanded executive committee meeting, the assembly of Turkey ESRU was approved in 16 April 2008. It was accepted that, Turkey ESRU was a structurally more detailed continuum of "Union of Turkish Urology Residents" which could not work actively due to the lack of a regulatory document. After this approval, the regulatory issues, plans and missions of Turkey ESRU was presented to european collegues during ESRU meetings.
We thank with great pleasure and respect to Dr. Tarık Esen, Dr. Bulent Cetinel, Dr. Ahmet Yaser Muslumanoglu (president, vice-president, head of resident coordination office of Turkish Association of Urology respectively), all the members of executive committee who showed a support of great value and enthusiasm for the assembly of such an organization which will be capable of representing Turkey on every international platform and will primarily serve for urology residents, recently graduated junior specialists.

TURKEY ESRU BOARD AND IT'S GOALS:

Turkey ESRU board is composed of founder executive committee and clinic resident representatives. Founder executive committee consisted of dedicated young urologists who have voluntarily practised national and international facilities about residents in urology in the past. Clinic resident representatives from a total of 72 urology clinics nationwide were enrolled to Turkey ESRU board. This board is currently under development and the list of board members recruited so far is shown in table 1. Turkey ESRU board, shows similarity to ESRU in structure and planned facilities. Similar organizations in other european countries such as Italy (esruitalia), germany (GeSRU), Greece (ESRU Greece) and Belgium (ESRU be) work under the structure of ESRU. Our missions on national and international platform can be listed as follows:

To conduct broad-based nationwide research activities.
To support and set standarts for urology training in Turkey.
To be in close relationship with Turkish Association of Urology and Turkish Board of Urologic Competency (To organise representative offices).
To provide adaptation to Turkish Association of Urology and Turkish Board of Urologic Competency.
To support international resident and specialist exchange programs.
To provide scholarships and free journal subscriptions.
To arrange meetings/symposiums about the issue of urology education.
To construct questionnaires about urology training in Turkey and present the results in national board meetings. Compare the results of these questionnaires with european data.
To support educational organisations of national urology associations.
To form national resident database and share this data with Turkish Association of Urology and ESRU.
To support academic and scientific facilities directed towards young urologists.

VISION:

Turkey ESRU is rather an union not an association. Resident in Urology and young specialists at the beginning of their carrier represent our target population. Urology residents are automatically accepted as Turkey ESRU members. Membership of the residents whose data is present in the annually updated database continues without the need for any particular payment. Turkey ESRU works under the supervision and structural organisation of the Turkish Association of Urology. However, Turkey ESRU is able to make and apply decisions indepently in an instutional setting. Our facilities cover a wide spectrum of people from medical faculty graduates who are about to make a decision about their residency to recently graduated young specialists at the beginning of their carrier. Turkey ESRU will also provide young urologists who have represented Turkey internationally. Eventually, a dynamic transfer of our missions and visions to the following generations will ensue.

ACTIVITIES OF TURKEY ESRU

The first executive committee meeting was held in Ankara (12.July.2008). According to the plans and decisions made during this meeting, a considerable progress has been achieved both on national and international platform;
National platform:

The offical web-site of Turkey ESRU ( www.turkiyeesru.org ) was constructed with an unrestricted support from the Turkish Association of Urology. Although, currently under development we expect young urologists to browse frequently through our web-site.
We constructed a logo to symbolize Turkey ESRU as a synthesis of national and international missions.
The questionnaire originally developed by ESRU (Evaluation of urology residencies in Europe) was translated to Turkish. Two questionnaires (Evaluation of residency programmes in Turkey and Evaluation of urology clinics in Turkey) based on the european counterpart were conducted nationwide. Results are currently under evaluation.
National resident database was updated and clinic resident representatives were appointed.
Turkey ESRU organised meetings and symposiums (topic: Animal Models in Urology) directed toward residents and young specialists. One of the residents attending to our meetings was rewarded a full sponsorhip to attend the annual EAU congress which is going to be held in Stockholm.
We decided to expand the availability of the resident education meetings of national association which are currently being held only in Ankara and Istanbul.
We planned to announce and therefore maximize the attendance to scholarship programs.
We decided to support national scientific and academic facilities.
Posters and brochures giving information about Turkey ESRU were designed and send to urology clinics nationwide.
In order to increase the attendence rate to Turkish Board of Urologic Competency exam, we planned to reach and communicate with every young urology specialist.
We initiated the concept of junior membership to Turkish Association of Urology.
Turkey ESRU stand was build and hosted visitors during the National Urology Congress held in Antalya this November.

International Platform:

Two residents will be selected as NCO and they will represent Turkey and Turkey ESRU in ESRU meetings. Hence, facilities of Turkey ESRU will take place in a coordinated manner with those of ESRU.
We aimed to give information about the current status of urology training in our country to our european colleagues.
By maintaining a tight relationship with ESRU, we would like to share the information of activities organised by EAU or other european organisations.
We will observe the facilities of similar unions of different european countries.
We planned to announce international scholarship programs and give the information about "centers of excellence" to young urologists.
The activities of Turkey ESRU will be updated regularly.

ACTIVITIES DIRECTED TOWARD UROLOGISTS THAT HAVE BEEN RECENTLY GRADUATED:

Currently, young urologists in Turkey have to perform obligatory practice after the completion of residency programme. Turkey ESRU aims to communicate with the ones who have participated in scientific projects during residency, experienced or willing to apply for an international short-term or long-term visit, passed or preparing for the national and international board exams. According to our database, there are a total of 181 urologists who have finished their obligatory practice in Eastern and Southeastern parts of Turkey for the time being. We are planning to share information (available equipment, monthly income, social activities) about the conditions of obligatory practice in those regions with the residents in training. These informations will be presented in our web-site.

RESULT:

Our main aim is to make young urologists being able to work coordinately in a scientific and academic platform. To do so, we will be carrying out feasibility studies regulary in order to standardize current urology practice. Moreover we will optimise the profile of Turkish urology residents in international meetings. In the near future, Turkey ESRU will continue to grow with the support and supervision of Turkish Association of Urology and hopefully all of the clinics in Turkey will participate in our activities.