Do Medical Specialties with Best Quality of Life Exist? Yes.
This write up would talk about medical specialties with best quality of life. In this post we will lay out what is best lifestyle medical specialties and best medical specialty for work life balance. Those include radiology, ophthalmology and few other balanced medical specialties.
You become a doctor only after you put in years of relentless studying and hard work. It’s not easy to become a doctor and earn a major degree like MD.
One thing every aspiring doctor have in common is the desire of making their profession rewarding and fulfilling financially and otherwise.
However, in the quest of having a great career they fail to choose medical specialties with best hours.
As a result, you must read through this article both if you are a junior doctor wondering about what would be the right subject of specialization for you as well as a young school student who has plans of becoming a doctor. Parents of aspiring physicians should also spare a few minutes to read this write-up.
Here, we would like to mention that every individual looking to take up medicine as their career should not only make sure that their profession allows them to spend enough time with family.
But it must also ensure that the stream of medicine they take up allows them to earn enough to have a good lifestyle. In short, they should choose the best medical specialty for work life balance. Read on to know more.
On the other hand – it also depends on a place where they work. Hospitals with ER have very demanding hours. While private practice may allow for time flexibility.
About Best Lifestyle Medical Specialties
To choose the best lifestyle medical specialties you must consider a series of factors. The most crucial one among them is your current lifestyle i.e. the lifestyle you follow before becoming a practicing doctor.
We will have to admit that you cannot live a life full of freedom (as far as time is concerned) as a medical professional. Doesn’t this stand true for most rewarding professions?
So, instead of looking for a stream of medicine that will provide you with lots of free time, look for a stream that involves less hectic work hours, causes minimum stress, offers good remuneration, and allows you to spend quality time with your family.
Considering these factors is crucial as there are many healthcare providers who succumb to the extreme physical and emotional pressure, they need to undergo at their workplace day in day out.
The first thing you must do to shortlist medical specialties with best hours is find the list of all medical specialties and subspecialties the college of your choice is offering. This should be easy as most top colleges make such lists available on their official website.
Talk to doctors you know; they can be the best people to guide you when it comes to choosing the best medical specialty for family life.
That’s because physicians know how the needs of a particular medical field stop doctors from being with their dear ones even on their special days like birthdays, anniversaries, and even on the occasion of a close relative’s death.
Other than that, you can also do some research online to gather knowledge about the kind of jobs doctors with various specializations need to perform. This will help you to create your own list of medical specialties with best quality of life.
Factors to Consider When Choosing the Best Medical Specialty for Work Life Balance
If the path leading to the medical college is arduous, things seem to become even more complicated when the junior doctors are asked to choose a subject for specialization. It’s a task that often leave medical students, residents, and interns extremely stressed.
We have tried to make the task a little simpler for you by introducing four factors you must consider when choosing a medical specialty that will provide you with perfect work life balance. Read on to know about Medical Specialties with Best Quality of Life.
- Personality Alignment: Your efficiency at performing any jobs is the very important factor contributing to your job satisfaction. Your skills and personality traits should dictate your choice when you are required to select a medical specialty.
Do you like to deal with people (patients)? Then you will feel fine in practice as attending physician in a hospital, or physician in a private medical group.
Are you super introvert and do not want to deal with people? Then radiology may be fine, where you deal with films, not with people.
When you are skilled at something and you have the right personality of performing the job on a large scale, you will be able to showcase maximum efficiency. This will automatically transform into job satisfaction.
Search online and you will come across a number of quizzes that will allow you to analyze your skills and personality traits and tell you which stream of medicine would be suitable for you.
Here, we would like to mention that all such quizzes are not reliable. However, they do make god starting points when you have no idea about your requirements.
Other relying on quizzes for determining your personality type, you can also analyze your skills and interests yourself. For that, you will have to sit and jot down every subject, chapter, or class that you used to find most interesting during your school days.
Also, ask yourself what kind of people you like to talk to. For instance, if you love spending time with kids, there cannot be a better specialization for you that pediatrics and hours could be good.
If you are good tech junkie – surgery or neurosurgery may be a good choice. But surgeons’ early career is usually too demanding and does not leave room for work-life balance.
Do you like sports and know a few things about sports injuries? Sports medicine is a big deal. Podiatrist deals with injuries quit often and may choose good working hours once establishes itself as a pro.
- Financial Aspects: You cannot ignore the financial aspects of various medical specialties if you want to take up the best medical specialty for raising a family.
Having such information is also crucial if you are looking for a profession that will improve your quality of life and allow you to have a good lifestyle.
Here, you must remember that specialties that offer good money are not always the ones that will allow you to enjoy great physical and emotional wellbeing.
For example, cardiologists and plastic surgeons are usually paid a bigger remuneration than pediatricians and family physicians. However, the stress levels involved in the cases handled by cardiologists and plastic surgeons are significantly more than the levels of stress encountered by pediatricians and family physicians.
So, if you want good work life balance, you should opt for the latter as those streams also pay well. You will be earning enough to become financially secured but still get time to spend with friends and family and that’s what should matter to you.
- Art of Balancing: If you are not busy, you are not a doctor. In other words, your worth as a doctor is proved only if you need to attend lots of patients every day. So, you cannot complain about being busy when you are a doctor.
As a result, instead of looking for a specialty that would keep you less busy look for a specialty that will allow you to implement your skills of balancing more effectively.
Some examples of such medical specialties include family medicine, dermatology, and pathology. Each of these fields can be the best medical specialty for raising a family if you are a good doctor.
However, they will never make you work unless you want to. This means you will not miss your parents’ anniversary or your daughter’s birthday every year just because you are a doctor.
- Long-Term Plans: Before you pick a medical specialty, you should have clear idea about your future goals. You must know what your long-term plans are and for what you are looking to earn money.
It’s important for you to understand that once you pick a medical specialty you will have to be dedicated and committed to meet the needs of that profession.
So, you must consider both your personal and professional goals before making the final selection. For instance, you can become a cardiac surgeon without much brainstorming if you don’t have plans to marry or have a family.
Similarly, if you have dreams of settling down in a remote village, it would be a good idea for you to take up family medicine.
List of Best Medical Specialty for Family Life
Irrespective of the specialization you pick, you must always be ready to put the interests of your patients first. This makes choosing the right specialty even more crucial.
Are you wondering what doctors have the best family life? The list below should answer your question aptly. It features the streams of medicine that will allow you to earn good money but without losing the opportunity of spending time with the people you love.
So, let’s see more specific Medical Specialties with Best Quality of Life.
Family Medicine
The primary duty of a family physician is caring for the community he or she lives in. This specialization should be the way to go for you if you like to interact with people.
If you can serve your patients well as their family physician, they will keep coming back to you, which in turn will guarantee good earnings for you.
However, despite being a pretty rewarding profession, family medicine will allow you to work just during regular office hours. You will be able to enjoy your social life and spend enough time with your near and dear ones.
As a family physician you will have the option of joining other medical practitioners at already established clinics and offices. If you want to enjoy greater flexibility, you can also practice in your own clinic.
Diagnostic Radiology
This field is the favorite of many young doctors as its less stressful compared to most other fields of medicine. As a diagnostic radiologist your primary job would be using various imaging techniques for diagnosing a disease.
Once you know what has actually happened to the patient, you will have to play the role of a consultant to the family doctor of the patient.
Go for this specialization if you are not interested in meeting new people every day and like to work alone in your own space.
Dermatology
As a dermatologist your job would be to deal with problems of your patients’ skin, hair, nails, external genitalia, and mouth. Like a family physician, a dermatologist can also have fixed office hours.
They can earn good amounts on a regular basis if they can develop good relationship with patients and help them get rid of various skin and hair conditions quickly.
As a hint – dermatologists usually do not deal with immediate life-threatening situations like surgeon. I have met a few happy dermatologists who enjoyed their work and had lots of life and interests outside work.
Anesthesiology
Anesthesiologists work to offer critical care, perioperative care, and pain management. These doctors might need to work continuously for several hours but have good control over their schedule.
If you become an anesthesiologist, you will have the right to decide whether you will be able to present during a certain surgery or not. However, once you commit you will have to be ready to invest as much time as the surgery demands.
I would say this is very in demand, high-paying but very demanding field.
Ophthalmology
Ophthalmologists are doctors who focus on diagnosing and treating diseases and problems of our eyes.
These medical practitioners usually have fixed working hours and rarely need to attend emergency calls.
Ophthalmologists can earn good money if they can serve their patients well.
Pediatrics
Individuals who are wondering what doctors have the best family life can also consider becoming a pediatrician. This should also be the go-to option for aspiring doctors who love to spend time with kids.
While most fields of medicines will expose you to some level of stress, pediatrics will take away all the stress you get from our sources.
As a pediatrician you will have to take care of the social, physical, and emotional health of kids and infants. At times, pediatricians do need to work during odd hours. However, the satisfaction of the job will never let you feel bad for that.
Psychiatry
If you are ready to deal with the stress we often associate with the medical profession, you can consider becoming a psychiatrist. As psychiatrists need to deal with individuals with emotional issues, they get exposed to serious amount of stress.
However, they can compensate everything by spending enough time with people they love. This is possible because doctors in this field can choose to have fixed working hours.
By the way, psychiatrists can make a lot of money – look up job sites. However, you have to have strong mental stamina as you will be dealing with some seriously weird staff sometimes. And you will never view people in the same light again.
Clinical Immunology
Doctors practicing in this field need to deal with various allergies. These people may need to attend a few serious patients; however, it’s unlikely for them to get emergency calls on a regular basis.
Most patients visiting these doctors are otherwise healthy but looking to get rid of allergies caused by certain medications, food items, or environmental factors.
Final Words About Medical Specialties with Best Quality of Life
This is only a birds view of Medical Specialties with Best Quality of Life. Whatever might be the medical specialty you choose you must be ready to study hard and gain enough experience before you consider enjoying your life. Additionally, you should also never neglect the needs of a patient for your own enjoyment.
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