If you’re a medical student, you might be wondering if you’ll ever find a healthy work-life balance as a physician. In short, the answer is a definite yes—despite the misconceptions about long hours without any time off, you can (and should) structure your future career to include your personal life and other hobbies to prevent burnout. And luckily, there are a few medical specialties with the best work life balance to choose from!
While you might not have this autonomy over your schedule right now, the day will come when you can lift your head from your medical books and see the light of day again! It’s true that one day you will have interests outside medicine, but until then, you can make strides towards a future of healthy work-life balance by taking into account what each specialty allows.
If you’re still choosing a path during medical school and exploring your options for medical specialties, read on to find which ones offer the best work-life balance!
Looking for a side-by-side comparison of each specialty to find your path in medicine? Check out this FREE Medical Specialties Breakdown download including required exam scores and more!
Top Medical Specialties With the Best Work-Life Balance
When we consider the specialties that tend to have more opportunities for work-life balance, the “E-ROAD” acronym (for emergency medicine, radiology, ophthalmology, anesthesia, and dermatology) comes to mind.
Less commonly named specialties such as psychiatry, pathology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) are also among the medical specialties with the best work-life balance. Doctors in these fields typically have a decent level of control over their lifestyle, making landing a residency in them especially desirable if you value flexibility and more traditional business hours.
Let’s have a look at some of the specialties mentioned above, so you can see if they sound like a good fit for you!
Dermatology and Ophthalmology
If you’re aiming to work mostly within the “standard” 9-to-5 business hours, along with fairly minimal call volume outside of normal hours of operation, you might want to look into dermatology or ophthalmology.
Most dermatologists and ophthalmologists work weekday clinic hours, and depending on the practice, a four-day workweek is usually considered a full-time schedule. Patient emergencies requiring evening hours are fairly minimal. Both of these fields are heavily procedural, which contributes to why these specialties are highly desirable with a very competitive match process.
Although there are many great things about these two specialties, they’re certainly not for everyone. Both are predominately clinic-based practices (though complex inpatient dermatologic care is certainly on the rise), and while you’ll work standard business hours, most dermatologists and ophthalmologists still spend a great deal of time outside the clinic on documentation and patient chart review. Unlike the “shift work” style specialties, both fields also generally require you to be available to patients in some capacity, either by phone or email, during evenings and weekends.
Emergency Medicine and Anesthesiology
When it comes to medical specialties with the best work-life balance, emergency medicine and anesthesiology may not leap to mind, as those services are pretty much needed 24/7.
But while working nights, weekends, and holidays may not be your cup of tea, the convenience of having your schedule set weeks to months in advance can allow you to plan activities during your off hours.
Interestingly, these fields are also somewhat unique in that you typically don’t include a patient follow-up at the end of your shift, which allows you to truly be disconnected during your time off. Both fields are also heavily procedural in nature, so if being hands-on in your daily work excites you, then you could definitely explore these areas of medicine.
Although these specialties have become more competitive in recent years, they still tend to be less competitive than dermatology and ophthalmology.
Blaze Your Own Trail
Although the fields listed above hold a reputation for being the medical specialties with the best work-life balance, the most important thing to remember is that your path in medicine can be tailored to fit your lifestyle regardless of the specialty you choose.
Some dermatologists might end up working over 60 hours per week, or sometimes even 80 hours if they’re running their own practice. On the flip side, some orthopedic surgeons, intensivists, emergency physicians, and hospitalists might work less than 40 hours a week, despite the reputation those fields have for being more time-intensive.
Final Thoughts
As the conversation around mental health and self-care continues to grow among the newer generation of physicians, even those in the more traditionally “demanding” fields of medicine can negotiate a schedule that offers a healthy work-life balance.
It still remains true that the most important thing when it comes to choosing a specialty is finding one you’re genuinely interested in. Even if you find yourself in a field with a “great lifestyle,” you’ll undoubtedly still devote an enormous amount of time to becoming an expert in that specialty.
As such, your happiness and job satisfaction will ultimately come from the work that most excites and motivates you. In the end, if you love the work, you won’t mind doing it, so the medical specialties with the best work-life balance are the ones you have the most passion for!
