How To Choose The Perfect Specialty In Med School

One of the very important decisions you have to make in medical school is the specialty you will choose. While others already know what they will choose even before they join the medical school, others decide as time goes by.

Others may even change their specialties a few times before landing on the perfect specialty. There are many things and factors that will influence your decision, but with this guide, you will be sure to make the best choice without changing your mind.

Here are our tips for choosing the right medical specialty for you.

1. Begin Elimination Early

Start evaluating the specialties as early as the first day in medical school. Consider what your goal in the medical field is and identify the specialty that will help you achieve it as early as possible. You should also narrow down the specialties by deciding whether you want a surgical or non-surgical specialty.

2. Decide What You Love And Enjoy

Within the many medical specialties, there is one that you are always looking forward to learning and always enjoy those practical classes. Choosing a specialty that you love and enjoy will help you because you will never feel as if you are being forced into studying.

While grades are very important in your medical school journey, they are not everything. One mistake that many students make is choosing a specialty just because they perform well in it.

Choose a specialty that you enjoy and perform well in because the medical field is based on how you perform the tasks and not how well you performed in the exams.

3. Do Your Research

Research on the availability and cultures of each of the specialties, especially the one you plan on choosing. Read about the facts on things like the gender roles in each specialty, work-life balance, and salaries.

You should also contact some specialists and practicing physicians and ask them about some of the facts of the field. That will help you get the full picture of the specialties and envision how the working environment will be like.

4. Ask For Guidance

In a decision as important as deciding your medical specialty, advice from practicing physicians and other specialists will go a long way in helping you choose the best specialty for you. You can also consider looking at the specialist program data.

Some of the things you should ask for guidance about include:

• The challenges faced in every specialty daily.
• When and how to choose the best specialty.
• Timeline for residency application.
• The admission competition for residencies in each specialty.
• What the residency compensation and work environment for every specialty are like.
• Additional career paths you can choose from.

5. Consider A Specialty That Has Low Chances Of Being Replaced

Technology is developing fast, and with things like robotics and artificial intelligence, some specialties will no longer need human hands. Some of the fields that have seen a change due to the growing technology include cardiology, pathology, and radiology.

Also, consider telemedicine and if a remote clinician can replace a local medical provider, like what is happening in primary care, radiology, and critical care.

Choosing a specialty where you can easily be replaced by cheaper providers or technology will not give you so much job security, and it may be hard to find that job in the first place.

6. Go For A Specialty With High Demand, Low Supply

The number of trained specialties in a medical field determines how much work there will be and the rates of compensation. Of course, we all want to practice in a field with high compensation rates and where the compensation equals the amount of work done.

Choose a specialty that is not so crowded with specialists because not only will you get higher compensation; it will also be easier to get a job.

7. Love Every Aspect Of The Specialty

We all find a lot of reasons to love what we do, but there is always that 1% that makes us want to change our mind. In medical specialties, some things can make you want to change your mind, like dealing with irritable bowel syndrome in gastroenterology.

However, you should love everything you do on your job because you signed up to help people get better.

Questions To Ask Before Choosing A Specialty

Answering these questions will help you in case you are torn between two or more specialties.

How much rotation experience do I have?

Rotation experience in each medical specialty will help you choose the best one for you. The skills you will have acquired during your rotations should guide you in choosing a specialty. Evaluate and decide the specialty you gained the most experience and skills.

Do you love reading the clinical materials in the specialty?

As time goes by, more and more knowledge is being added to every medical specialty, and it will be key for you to attain that knowledge. If you do not enjoy reading the medical materials in your field, you will always find a reason not to read them.

That will leave you behind in some of the developing trends in your fields, which will, with time, render you not competent enough.

Are the clinical materials intellectually stimulating?

Doing the same thing for many years will eventually get boring, and you need something to keep you interested in your specialty. Do the materials in your specialty make you want to keep learning new things?

If they do, they will help you remain interested and leave you always looking for answers, which eventually leads to you acquiring more skills and knowledge.

Do you want a specialty with many procedures?

If you enjoy medical procedures, choose a specialty like cardiology, anesthesiology, GI, or critical care. To perfect your skills on those procedures, you can shadow some of the great physicians in those fields and have them train you.

Cardiology is one of the specialties with many procedures, and if you are a lover of procedures, interventional cardiologist jobs in Ohio are what you should apply for.

Do you love competition?

Some people love competition because it always pushes them to do better, while others don’t because it makes them feel inadequate or under so much pressure. If you are among the people who love competition, consider applying for interventional cardiologist jobs in Ohio.