A survey of ethically challenging issues in urological practice

We surveyed ethical attitudes among urological and nonurological practitioners, allowing for thought and discussion regarding ethical issues in a larger audience.

With input from an academic urologist, a senior medical student and a hospital ethics committee member, a survey was created which asked for multiple choice responses to 3 demographic questions (practice type, age, location) and 10 ethically challenging clinical questions. Surveys were distributed online or via mail to 5 groups including academic urologists, urologists in private practice, medical students, hospital risk managers/attorneys and members of a bioethical society. Surveys were analyzed according to demographic variables.

Surveys were sent out to 1,447 individuals and 340 responses were received (24%). There were statistically significant differences in the responses to several questions based on practice type, age and practice location. There was a lack of consistency in answer choices with greater than 50% agreeing on a single answer choice for only 4 of 10 questions (40%).

This is the first study to our knowledge which attempts to objectively categorize ethical attitudes in a broad based survey of urologists and nonurologists, and challenges members of our profession to study their own responses to these ethical issues.