The joy of becoming a doctor and being employed full-time with a hospital are just some of the perks of completing your foundation years and receiving your medical degree. But what next? If you’re one of the fortunate few, who have already chosen the specialty you plan to pursue, that’s great, but if you aren’t, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered!
We understand that making a final decision about your medical specialty might be one of the most challenging decisions you’d have to make. So, we’ve put together some top tips to help you select the medical specialty that is right for your career.
Essential Factors to consider while choosing your medical specialty
Personality
The best place to start when choosing a medical specialty is to start with yourself. Assess your own personality first: understand your interests, likes, dislikes, ambitions, passions, talents, etc. You could also jot down answers to some important questions, such as:
How much time would you like to spend with each patient?
Do you thrive under pressure?
What is it that you are truly passionate about?
Mixed personality traits are suitable for most, but certain characteristic traits best fit certain specialties. For instance, if you thrive under pressure or in a constantly changing environment and are great at dealing with complex problems, consider working in the Accident & Emergency department, Critical Care, or General Surgical Emergencies.
True Calling/Inclination
Evaluate and understand what piques your interest and what is your true calling. Hopefully, you have received plenty of opportunities to learn how each specialty operates and the skills required to work within it during your internships.
With the help of this experience, you can now make a connection between the skills you possess and the requirement of each specialty. Although this might take some research and self-evaluation, it is worth it as it will give you enough time to understand where you can thrive.
Preferences
If you’ve reached the stage where you would like to pick from a few doctor specialties, then the right step is to analyse every specialty in a SWOT analysis format – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. In addition to this, asking yourself the below questions might help you to get one step closer to your medical specialty:
How stressful is the specialty?
Does the specialty allow for research?
How long is the doctor’s training period?
How competitive is the training selection process?
What kind of patients do you want to treat?
Mentor Programmes for Doctors
Enroll yourself in a mentor program to meet and interact with subject matter experts. Reach out to doctors working successfully in the specialty of your interest; this can give you real-time insights on case developments. In addition, these connections will help you gain more exposure and understand what to expect.
Exposure
If you are passionate about working in the NHS, providing high-quality patient care, and saving lives, you should follow your true passions, goals, and dreams. This will not only inject some excitement into your life but also help you reach your true potential. You can relocate to a different country and gain much broader exposure with the added advantage of earning extra money. A fundamental reason you may be unable to take a step towards your career journey is that it’s human nature for us to get caught up in our daily lives and, often, stay in one place.
Going abroad, stepping back, and exploring the world have enormous benefits!
Exposure to a new culture, creating life-long memories, and the opportunity to expand your social network and learn from others – will do absolute wonders for you. In addition, the UK is home to one of the largest healthcare providers in the world, i.e., The National Health Service (NHS), thereby making it a valuable country for doctors to relocate to.
Remedium can support you with your journey to the UK
If you have any more questions regarding NHS doctor pay, work/life balance, wellness, childcare, or accommodation, feel free to reach out to us. Our expert recruitment team can support you in finding the right jobs within the NHS, and the relocation process. Once you secure a job placement within an NHS hospital you will be assigned a Remedium onboarding executive who will help you at every step of the way like your own personal guide, at absolutely no cost (we are paid by our NHS hospital clients).
In addition, to sourcing suitable accommodation, your onboarding executive will support you with navigating the COS and visa process, finding suitable childcare for your children, making connections in your new local community, and much more! If you’re an international doctor looking for career advice or a new role, please register your details and upload your CV and one of our relocation experts will be in touch.
