Specialties!

[abc234]

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Can anyone give me like a list of the most common specialties?
Which are the hardest/most competitive?
Which are the easiest?

Thanks 🙂

 

[yanorglu]

Oh man here it goes...

 

[huskerdye]

I'm assuming your talking about how difficult it is to get into different residency programs..

If so, Some of the more competitive residency's are Dermatology, branches of surgery, etc..

The not so competitive ones are Family Medicine, pyschology, internal med, the primary care specialties..

 

[RySerr21]

dude type in "list of medical specialties" to wikipedia and you have your list. Takes two seconds.

 

[Maygyver]

dude type in "list of medical specialties" to wikipedia and you have your list. Takes two seconds.

But this is funner: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=medical+specialties

 

[nerv12]

lol thats too funny.

 

[abc234]

haha. very funny. so maybe that was a stupid question, but the second part was not.

Which are the most competitive? which are the least?

 

[CScull]

... did you not look at the google thing?

You will have to put some actual research into it... and look huskerdye even got you started!

 

[Law2Doc]

...
The not so competitive ones are Family Medicine, pyschology, internal med, the primary care specialties..

Um, psychologists are not medical doctors. You probably mean psychiatry.

 

[Law2Doc]

Can anyone give me like a list of the most common specialties?
Which are the hardest/most competitive?
Which are the easiest?

Thanks 🙂

The Frieda site lists all the specialties. Google medical specialties and Frieda and you should find it. No idea what you mean by "most common" specialty -- I guess the primary care jobs as a group would fit this.

Levels of competitiveness change year to year, but these days the most competitive to get tend to be things like radiation oncology, plastics, dermatology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology. Things are competitive if they either offer a good lifestyle and salary, or if spots are limited, or both. Family medicine, Peds and psychiatry tend to be at the other end of the continuum, in large part because there are many more slots and because income is at the lower end. It should be noted that within each field there are better and worse (good versus malignant) residency programs, so each is a range and there will be overlaps. i.e. the best orthopedics program might be harder to get than the worst derm program.

Bear in mind that once you get to the stage of choosing a specialty, you no longer will be thinking -- I need to do the "most competitive" path I can get. You will be thinking -- I need to do something I enjoy, because I will be doing it for the next 45 years of my life. So if you like peds best, you probably want to do peds, even if you have the grades for derm. Because you won't be as happy on a more competitive path doing something you don't find all that interesting. This concept will hit home more as you get closer to the decision point. This is also one of many reasons why match lists are not going to be useful in choosing med schools -- you only see what people chose, not what they could get.

 

[Silverman780]

Anyone know anything on the competitiveness in Emergency Medicine?

 

[lord_jeebus]

Bear in mind that competitiveness is as much a function of supply (ie. number of training spots available) as it is of demand, and that a competitive specialty is not necessarily better - financially, by "lifestyle," or any other metric.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Anyone know anything on the competitiveness in Emergency Medicine?

I would say that most US allopathic medical students who have an interest in Emergency Medicine will be able to land a residency spot somewhere.

 

[Terpskins99]

I would say that most US allopathic medical students who have an interest in Emergency Medicine will be able to land a residency spot somewhere.

My observation is that more and more med students are showing interest in EM and anesthesia. Even though these two specialties aren't above the average in terms of competitiveness right now, I suspect that they will become considerably more competitive in the near future.

 

[Law2Doc]

My observation is that more and more med students are showing interest in EM and anesthesia. Even though these two specialties aren't above the average in terms of competitiveness right now, I suspect that they will become considerably more competitive in the near future.

Agree. There seems to be a renewed interest in some of the more lifestyle specialties. EM is becoming more popular because shift work translates to lower hours. Not always daytime hours, and you are working the entire shift (unlike other fields where you have some downtime), but to total weekly hours is probably among the lower end in medicine. Anesthesiology can have longer hours, but is still pretty lifestyle friendly, and there is a lot more downtime while you are at work. But bear in mind you have to pick something you are interest in first and foremost, and other considerations really should be secondary. Otherwise you are simply going to be serving a life sentence at work, which is silly if you are someone who had choices in life.