127 Structured robot-assisted surgery training curriculum for residents in Urology and impact on future surgical activity Discussion In this study, we combine the results of a snap shot survey amongst Dutch residents and recently graduated urologists with the results of residents who participated in an advanced course in Robot Assisted Surgery in order to answer the following research questions: (1) What is the current availability of training for robot assisted surgery and the possibility to perform robot assisted surgery during Dutch residency in urology curriculum? (2) Do residents show a significant increase in Simulation-based surgical skills following the curriculum? (3) Are residents able/allowed by their trainers to perform robot assisted surgery as first surgeon after the curriculum? What is the current availability of training for robot assisted surgery and the possibility to perform robot assisted surgery during Dutch residency in urology curriculum? A majority of the residents and more than half of the urologists who responded to the questionnaire were interested in the field of robot assisted surgery. The results of the questionnaire show the majority of respondents were working in hospitals which have a surgical robot available. Almost half of these robots have a Dual console attached to them. The presence of a dual console gives the opportunity to learn on site robot assisted surgery in a safe and controlled manner.4,18 Thus reducing the risk for the patient and increasing the novice surgeons ability to learn. A majority of the urologists were allowed to perform robot assisted surgery during their residency. This percentage was lower in the group of residents which could be explained by the fact that 25% of the responding residents were in the first two years of their residency. None of the urologists performed robot assisted surgery during the first two years of their residency. In both the urologist and residents group the majority of the respondents was allowed to perform robot assisted surgery before their fifth year of residency. This sparks the discussion whether a basic RAS skills course should be implemented in an earlier stage of the urological curriculum (i.e. in year 3 or 4) in order to provide the residents with a basic understanding of RAS and the robot system. This basic RAS skills course could consist of the basic aspects of the robot system (i.e., hands-on training, combined with theoretical information) and basic surgical skills for RAS (i.e. draping and docking and simulation training). Even though almost all respondents who were allowed to perform robot assisted surgery during their residency had to pass some form of basic requirements before being allowed to perform parts of the surgery. The level of these requirements var-
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