[CAPURO survey on quality of life of urologists in 2009]

The physician's well-being at work is more and more evaluated, but so far few studies have concerned the specialty of urology. The objective of this survey CAPURO was to explore the quality of the professional life of French urologists, to get their position about on going reforms and information about their extra professional activities.

The duration of this survey conducted in 2009 was one month with a questionnaire of 25 questions available at the AFU congress and on the Internet site www.cap-uro.com.

Two hundred and ninety-six urologists have answered the questionnaire. More than two of three urologists declared being satisfied of their work, especially private urologists. The mean duration of weekly work was 57hours with much time spent for activities not directly related to the care of patients, but judged useful to develop quality of care and evaluation of practices. Ninety percent of urologists declared not to have an easy access to the new techniques and 60% of them were interested by clinical research, but most of them didn't have the necessary resources. They declared to be satisfied by the continuous medical training, but they affirmed lacking of help to get accreditation. Oncology, benign hyperplasias of prostate, lithiasis and endourology were the main urological specialities exercised by urologists. A majority of French urologists seemed to be very anxious about the future, mainly because of on going reforms. A few numbers of urologists had extra professional activities.

In 2009, French urologists who participated in the survey CAPURO were mostly satisfied or very satisfied with their conditions of practice, but with some dissatisfaction justifying a real dialogue between health authorities and professionals.