Nuclear medicine is actually a very interesting field involving imaging studies done after the administration of radioactive isotopes that are targeted for certain situations. They do lung ventilation / perfusion scans, non invasive cardiac stress tests, and many other scans. PET scans are becoming more and more popular for cancer staging and will be exploding in the near future.
The problem with nuc med as a residency and separate specialty is the lack of jobs, especially in the private sector. The reason is that all diagnostic radiology resident now do at least 6 months of nuc med training and can read the same studies as nuc med residency trained physicians (residency is 3 years for nucs). Plus, there is a nuc med fellowship available after radiology residency. So a group would much rather hire a radiologist who can help out with everything than a nuc med doc who can only do the nucs.
Lifestyle is like radiology, pay is less than radiology because its mostly academics, not private.
