Factors influencing young urologists' productivity and academic career choice.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to identify the variables that affect young urologists' productivity and academic career choice.


METHODS
We have conducted an internet-based national survey for urologists randomly sampled from the database of Turkish Urological Association and 110 physicians completed this survey. Participants were asked to answer three-page questionnaire including 37 questions, which takes around 5 min to complete. Questionnaire was consisting of four main sections: 'demography', 'education', 'working conditions' and 'quality of life'.


RESULTS
Increased dedicated research time, being interested in an academic career, being Fellow of the European Board of Urology (FEBU), having English proficiency, and greater numbers of manuscript publication during residency were associated with increased productivity after residency (p = 0.001, p = 0.028, p = 0.046, p&lt;0.001 and p&lt;0.001, respectively). The remaining variables including age at marriage, age at having a child, monthly salary, length of residency, having a mentor or role model during residency showed no significant relationship with manuscript publications. Twenty-nine physicians (26.4%) stated that they had once been interested in their residency but were no longer interested in academic urology. Reasons for this loss of academic interest included lack of effective mentor or role model (27.2%), bureaucracy (17%), financial issues (13.6%), mandatory rule to work in public hospitals (18.2%) or military hospitals (9%) and language problems (21.6%).


CONCLUSIONS
Our data indicate that increased time spent for research, being interested in an academic career, being an FEBU, having English proficiency, and greater publication during residency were associated with increased numbers of publications and academic career choice.
Department of Urology, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale - Turkey.
Berkan
B
Resorlu
Department of Urology, Bezmialem Vakif University, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul - Turkey.
Mesrur Selcuk
MS
Silay
Department of Urology, Samsun University, Faculty of Medicine, Samsun - Turkey.
Kadir
K
Onem
Department of Urology, Gaziantep University, Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep - Turkey.
Omer
O
Bayrak
Department of Urology, Sakarya State Hospital, Sakarya - Turkey.
Adil Emrah
AE
Sonbahar
Department of Urology, Dogansehir State Hospital, Malatya - Turkey.
Omer
O
Acar
Department of Urology, Konya Training and Research Hospital, Konya - Turkey.
Osman
O
Ergun
Department of Urology, Kemalpasa State Hospital, Izmir - Turkey.
Orcun
O
Celik
Department of Urology, Istanbul University, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul - Turkey.
Tzevat
T
Tefik
Department of Urology, Fırat University, Faculty of Medicine, Elazig - Turkey.
Fatih
F
Firdolas
Department of Urology, Mardin State Hospital, Mardin - Turkey.
Zafer
Z
Tandogdu
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002321:Career Choice; D004526:Efficiency; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057566:Self Report; D014572:Urology