THE CURRENT STATUS OF TRAINING IN GYNECOLOGY

A PERSONAL VIEW

Abstract

The practice of obstetrics and gynecology has changed dramatically in the last decade. Evidence exists for a marked increase
in professional dissatisfaction, poor personal relationship and burnout. These conditions are now being seen in younger physicians
and in training programmes. Physicians have thus stopped practicing obstetrics and gynecology at a much younger age and are
increasingly quitting training programmes. These findings, along with the recent societal liability of the profession and medico-legal
crisis, leave many communities with a shortage of physicians who practice gynecology in particular. A potential solution for
alleviating some of these conditions is the introduction of a new paradigm of training in obstetrics and gynecology that produces
a physician whose sole focus of practice is managing the gynecological patient as its end product. This purposive training will
remove from the physician the need to be always available to the laboring patient that potentially may decrease stress, improve
physician well being , increase length of professional practice and decrease burnout. The “gynecological” trainee will also devote
more time to apprenticeship, coaching in communication and technical skills and in turn improve patent care and satisfaction
because he or she will have no other distractions during training.