Occupational Medicine

[njones9]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Like other posters who have had questions about occupational/preventive medicine, I am unsure where is the best place to post this... but here goes!

I am currently an MS3 who has become interested in occupational medicine, specifically through my future obligation in the military as an HPSP student. I am interested in soliciting the opinion of currently practicing occ med docs, as well as other physicians who may not be occ med trained, but work in the field.

What are your favorite/least favorite things about the specialty? Specifically, one downside to the field that I see is the possibility of feeling like the "middle man," stuck between the desires of malingering patients and cut-throat employers.

As I have spoken with physicians involved in occ med, some of the things that they have said they appreciate about the field is the variety of careers that one can pursue (more clinical, less clinical, more administrative, more preventive, etc.). What area do you work in? What do you like/not like about it?

Any other general advice/comments about the field would be welcome. Thank you in advance for your insight!

 

[teetotaler14]

I'm also interested (potentially) in occ med. Does anyone know how competitive/difficult it is to match into this specialty, especially if one's med school grades and USLME scores were low?

 

[Rehab_dr]

I'm also interested (potentially) in occ med. Does anyone know how competitive/difficult it is to match into this specialty, especially if one's med school grades and USLME scores were low?

I think that few AMG tend to go into Occ. Med. Some people do switch into Occ Med, and I've seen an increased trend of this in recent years as it seems more and more resident burnout is a norm and as salaries in certain competitive specialties decline. It is a rather low key residency - with little to no call as most rotations are outpt., and tend to occur in a variety of settings depending on what the focus is. There is a requirement of an internship year. Most programs are 2 years after internship and one year is spent doing an MPH. After graduation, there are several routes of employment -occ med clinics are one, overseeing employee health depts, or working in corporations, sometimes as directors of health in different businesses, etc. Many options.

Salaries tend to be comparable if not slightly better to primary care. Typically most of the jobs due to the nature of the work are no call, no weekend except for those who work in clinics that operate on weekends.

As far as competitiveness, I think it tends to be on the lower end of competitiveness. It's not a huge field, not well known, and I personally only know of a handful of people who have applied to occ med from the get go. The other cases I know of people who have gone into the field did so after being unable to match into more competitive specialties, or a few that were in specialties and burned out and were looking for something more low key.

I don't believe they go through the match typically. Many spots are still obtained outside the match.