The global launch of a step forward in the education of urology nurses took place at the British Association of Urological Nurses (BAUN) conference in Edinburgh last month. Devised, constructed and agreed as a partnership between four international urology nursing associations – BAUN, the European Association of Urology Nurses, the New Zealand Urological Nurses Society and the Australia and New Zealand Urological Nurses Society – EFUNCore is a core educational framework for urology nursing.
EFUNCore is the first iteration of a comprehensive international educational framework for urology nursing, that captures something of the fundamental elements, the core of our practice – hence the name EFUNCore. Born out of an idea first discussed in 2017, EFUNCore proposes the knowledge and competency skills which the four associations judge as fundamental for all urology nurses.
EFUNCore is designed with one overarching aim – to facilitate the attainment of a minimum standard of knowledge and practice for all urology nurses, regardless of the country in which they practice. At its heart, EFUNCore is designed to be a tool to support the development of urological nursing care and the education necessary to underscore this.
The introduction to the document explains why it is needed and how it was created. As far as the content is concerned, following a long process of discussion with urology nurses, urology nurse leaders, association members, educational advisors, and within the leadership boards of the associations, six areas central to EFUNCore were agreed as follows:
The introduction to the document explains why it is needed and how it was created. As far as the content is concerned, following a long process of discussion with urology nurses, urology nurse leaders, association members, educational advisors, and within the leadership boards of the associations, six areas central to EFUNCore were agreed as follows:
- Communication in urology care
- Leading and managing urology care
- Applying evidence and research in urology care
- Foundation anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology in urological disease and disorders
- Fundamental issues in benign urology
- Fundamental issues in urological oncology (Figure 1).
The intention is that the knowledge and competency elements within EFUNCore will play a number of roles. They are designed, primarily, to support associations and other professional partners in delivering the educational activities required to see a common standard of knowledge and practice for all urology nurses. EFUNCore will help nurse educators to create a supportive educational programme which will be of real benefit to urology nurses now and in future.
To support this, the partner associations are committed to devising education activities linked to the EFUNCore knowledge and competency outcomes, and they will create dedicated content, activities, materials and programmes to support urology nurses to acquire the necessary EFUNCore knowledge and/or outcomes. They believe that EFUNCore offers an opportunity to create a new and exciting future for urology nursing that will see not only the further development of current urology nurses, but will also attract those of tomorrow, because they see that urology nurses care about their education, their practice, their profession and their patients.
To access the document and find out more about the content of the six key sections, go to https://baun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/EFUNCore.pdf
Figure 1. The six central content areas within EFUNCore. 
