Urologist Taking Care of Your Urinary Tract

Urologist: a surgeon who focuses on the urinary tracts of males and females and also the reproductive system of males.

As a doctor in this specialty you will have expertise in the organs of the:

• kidneys
• ureters
• urinary bladder
• urethra
• male reproductive organs.

This specialist will use medical and surgical procedures which include endoscopic, percutaneous, and other minimally invasive procedures to treat patients.

Quick Facts

Competitiveness: Highest

Length of training: 5 years

Number of residency programs: 119

Number of residents in training: 998

Number in U.S. currently Board Certified in specialty: 10,000

First year median compensation: $190,000

Mean hours per week in patient care activities: 56.2

Residency Information

You will spend 1 or 2 years in a general surgery residency followed by 4 years training in this specialty. With 1 additional year of training you can subspecialize in pediatric urology.

Why Choose

Many physicians have had personal contact with another doctor in this specialty and this influenced their decision.

Overall, many chose this specialty because it allows for an expansive array of activities which covers a fairly succinct specialty.

Doctors enjoy knowing rather soon if their medical or surgical treatments were able to help their patients.

Typical Schedule

You won't be working as long as other surgeons, about 9 to 10 hours on average each day. Each day will be a combination of surgery and office visits with a patient population ranging from infants to the elderly.

Your on-call schedule will be dictated by your practice environment, but there is not a lot of emergency work.

If You're Interested

You will want to know very early in your medical career if you want to go into this field of medicine.

It is a good idea to complete an elective in this specialty, have stellar grades, and have surgical experience.

In this specialty you must be sure that you are willing to dedicate years of training and potentially make less money then you might in other specialties.