Consultancy skills in urology: a model for teaching and evaluation

Objective: Consultation activity is an important aspect of urological pract ice, but the specific teaching of this activity is under-developed The obje ctive of this study was to establish a list of consultancy skills as a basi s for a planned and structured approach to leaching and evaluation of consu ltancy skills in urology: Material and Method. Two-step qualitative protocol: 1) Establishment of an initial list of skills based on data of the literature: 2) Submission of th is list to a series of "focus groups" (urologists, interns. referring physi cians) in order to validate and progressively refine the model. Results: The items identified were classified into 3 distinct lists. 1) the oretical knowledge. 2) technical skills specific to urology predominantly p erformed in the consulting setting, 3) interpersonal skills exclusively con cerning the consultant-referring physician relationship. Conclusions: The consensual specification of these skills can be used to ob jective define teaching and evaluation strategies for urology consultancy s kills.