Urological Pathology Attachment

Consultant members:

Dr. Selina Bhattarai

Dr. Sam Chilka

Dr. Pat Harnden

Consultant contacts for training issues:   

Dr. Sam Chilka

Dr. Selina Bhattarai

When commencing attachment to Urological Pathology:

Introduce yourself to all the consultants, and let them know of any periods of annual leave or absence from the department. Let us know your extension number.  Familiarise yourself with the following:

Organisation of the attachment:

Cut-up

There is a daily consultant rota for cut-up, which is displayed in the specimen reception area. Find out which consultant is allocated to cut-up on each day, and liaise with that individual as soon as possible during the day. The consultant will allocate specimens to be cut up by the trainee.

To begin with, the trainee will observe the consultant cutting up specimens. When the you have observed the consultant cut up a sufficient number of a particular type of resection specimen, you will then have the opportunity to cut up the next example of that specimen yourself, under direct supervision by the consultant. Once the trainee is confident in handling a particular specimen type, and with the agreement of the consultant on cut-up for that day, the trainee will be able to cut up further examples of that specimen with less direct supervision.

Make sure that your name is written on the request form, so that the slides come directly to you.

Reporting

When you have received the slides for cases which you have cut up, first look at them on your own, doing any necessary background reading, and looking up any previous histology reports on CoPath. Write down your observations on paper, as far as you can in the format of a histopathology report. Include a full microscopic description, your analysis including discussion of possible differential diagnoses and any necessary ancillary studies, a conclusion and a diagnosis. Once you have done this arrange a time to check these cases with the supervising consultant.  Make any necessary amendments to your report as advised by the checking consultant. Dictate these reports onto NOMAD and hand in the request forms to the supervising consultant’s secretary for typing. When the reports have been typed, edit them and make any amendments on CoPath. Transfer the reports onto the supervising consultant’s worklist on CoPath, and hand the request forms to the consultant for authorisation.

You will also be given biopsy cases to report, which you should treat in the same way as described above. Keep a record of all cases which you are in the process of reporting – this will ensure that slides/ request forms can be found if needed at short notice. Remember that cases which you are in the process of reporting are your responsibility, and you should treat them as such. Be mindful of turnaround times for reporting cases.

In addition, consultants will give trainees educational cases which should provide a basis for trainees’ background reading.

MDT Meetings

Tuesday - 8:00am - 9:00am Bladder/Penis
Friday - 1:00pm - 2:30pm Kidney/prostate/testicular germ cell tumours

There is a consultant rota for MDT meetings. Trainees are expected to attend MDT meetings.

Recommended reading

Training Objectives

In general trainees will be expected to gain knowledge of urological pathology entities, and gain experience of cutting-up urological specimens. This will obviously depend on the stage of training of each individual trainee; this should be discussed with supervising consultants at the start of the attachment, and a list of training objectives should be agreed.