There are few decisions that are more important for a young medical student than the specialty they choose. There are plenty of considerations to take into account while leading to that decision. The specialty someone chooses while in school will have big impacts on how they practice later on, how much money they make, and possibly how much control they’ll have in their professional life.
Students should think about what bodily systems are the most interesting to them. If there’s a disease, organ, or organ system that really absorbs a student, that may be a clue about what they ought to do as a physician. When someone’s doing work that they enjoy, sometimes it doesn’t even feel like a job. Being able to follow a passion is a great thing, and medical students should take advantage of that if they can.
Another thing to consider is personality type, and the kind of patient each specialty works with. For example, pediatricians deal with children who may be too small to communicate clearly. Sometimes they also have difficult parents and insurance providers who are reluctant to authorize procedures. Specialties like dermatologists may deal more with people who are seeking elective procedures and pay out-of-pocket rather than through insurance. All of these are important matters to take into account before selecting a specialty.
Work/life balance is another issue that medical students should think about before committing to a specialty. Some types of medicine are much more time-consuming than others. Emergency medicine typically has no call hours, but physicians are expected to work nights and weekends. Medical genetics and pathology are also specialties that typically offer good work/life balance for the people who work in them.
Finally, it’s never a bad idea to seek help with this decision. It’s a big one. People like professors and advising deans are available to assist medical students who aren’t sure what specialty is right for them. It may also be possible to shadow a physician in a given specialty. This is an opportunity that should not be passed up. Much like visiting a campus before committing to attend school there, it gives students an idea of what the experience will actually be like.