12 Medical Specialties with Best Quality of Life

It is very hard to objectively determine 12 medical specialties with best quality of life, because whether some lifestyle can be considered good, highly depends on the individual living it. If you think that bigger income, automatically translates into better quality of life, check out our list of the Happiest Medical Specialties with the Most Satisfied Doctors, because that list considers income satisfaction in its rankings.

Choosing a specialty can be a tough call, especially if you don’t have a passionate interest in any particular subject to make your choice more obvious. Medical students usually know the term R.O.A.D. to success, which means that Radiology, Ophthalmology, Anesthesiology and Dermatology are specialties that are paid highly, yet less demanding and offering a better lifestyle than most specialties, and we will see if that common knowledge is corroborated in our list.

For our ranking, we are using two Medscape surveys – lifestyle report 2017, and physician lifestyle report 2014. From lifestyle report 2017, we are using burnout rates, severity of burnouts, happiness at work, and happiness outside of work across 26 specialties. From physician lifestyle report 2014, we are using rankings which physicians take more than 4 weeks of vacation, using this data seemed to be much better choice than using income data, because what is the point of having money if you don’t have the time to enjoy it? Because the second data set doesn’t include otolaryngology we could not properly rank it, though it seems unlikely that it would have gotten on the list of medical specialties with best quality of life anyway. In places where there was a tie, we used vacation data ranking, to break the tie. Burnout is defined as a loss of enthusiasm for work, and a low sense of personal accomplishment. The overall burnout rate for physicians is 51%, which is not only very high, but is also a significant increase in the time span of 4 years from 40% in 2013. The severity of the burnout in the survey was defined on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 meant that burnout doesn’t have a significant impact on respondent’s life, while 7 meant that respondent is thinking of leaving medicine. Happiness at work and outside of work, represents the percentage of physicians, who responded that they are either very or extremely happy in the corresponding field of life.

Some people on forums suggest that one of the specialties with good lifestyle is emergency medicine. However, that only seems to be true when you are young, because later in life it becomes harder and harder to recover from stressful night shifts. Working for a few days and then having a few days off might seem good, but considering that off-time is spent recovering from the late shifts it is really not a surprise that emergency medicine has the worst burnout rate at 59 percent. Specialty with the least severe burnout is Infectious Disease with 3.9. Nephrology and Rheumatology are specialties with the worst happiness at work at 24 percent. Rheumatology is also the worst at happiness outside of work at 61 percent, followed by Nephrology at 62 percent. While it did not get on our list of 12 medical specialties with highest quality of life because no physicians belonging to the specialty of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation participated in the survey, it is worth mentioning that it is often joked about that PM&R stands for “plenty of money and relaxation”, and it offers a good work-life balance. Be sure to shadow a doctor of the specialty of interest, because you might realize that is not all that glorious as you imagine it to be. Consider the fact that some tough specialties, can be worked part time for less money of course, but in that way possibly making a much better work-life balance.

12. Psychiatry & Mental Health

On the bottom of our list of 12 medical specialties with best quality of life is the specialty that suffers from the lowest burnout rate of 42 percent. The severity of burnouts for Psychiatry & Mental Health is 4. Happiness at work is 37 percent, happiness outside of work is 66 percent. Having a private practice seems like a very good opportunity to have control over how much and when you work. Not having night shifts, not waking up early for some surgery, not having to cut people open, really the only downside is that you will make less money, but even so still a fair amount.

11. Oncology

Oncology has the burnout rate of 47 percent, and the severity of burnouts is very high at 4.5. Happiness at work is 36 percent, happiness outside of work is 66 percent. When it comes to Oncology, Radiation Oncology might be considered a new R in the R.O.A.D – radiation oncologist can potentially work for 40 hours a week, and just 4 days a week.

10. Urology

With the burnout rate of 52 percent, and the severity of burnouts of 4.6, which is worst among all specialties, you might be questioning why is it on our list of medical specialties with best quality of life? Even happiness at work is just 31 percent, but happiness outside of work is 76 percent which is best among all specialties, and the fact that more than 20 percent of Urologists claimed that they take more than 4 weeks of vacation helped a lot in the ranking.

9. Pulmonary Medicine

Pulmonary Medicine has the burnout rate of 49 percent, and the severity of burnouts of 4.3. Happiness at work is 37 percent, and happiness outside of work is 65 percent. About 20 percent of Pulmonologists claimed to take more than 4 weeks of vacation.

8. Gastroenterology

While Gastroenterology has very high burnout rate of 50 percent, the severity of burnouts is relatively low at 4. Happiness at work is 35 percent, and happiness outside of work is very good at 71 percent. Relatively predictable hours, and relatively lower number of terminally ill patients that you can get throughout a career, make this field less stressful.

7. Dermatology

There are three letters left from R.O.A.D now that we confirm that Dermatology is on our list of medical specialties with best quality of life. The burnout rate is 46 percent, and the severity of burnouts is 4.3. Happiness at work is the best at 43 percent, and happiness outside of work is the second best at 74 percent. Working normal hours, and making people happy because you are making them look better, and also getting a lot less patients that are terminally ill than other specialties, helps this specialty earn a place on our list.

6. Allergy & Immunology

Allergy & Immunology, next on the list of  medical specialties with best quality of life, has the burnout rate of 43 percent, and the severity of burnouts of 4.3. Happiness at work is 41 percent, and happiness outside of work is excellent at 74 percent. One of the specialties that can have normal work hours, such as 9 to 5, making it one of 12 medical specialties with the highest quality of life.

5. Pathology

While Pathologists, next on the list of medical specialties with best quality of life have the second best burnout rate of 43 percent, when they do have a burnout it seems to be stronger with the severity of burnout of 4.4. Only 36 percent reported being very happy at work, and 66 percent reported being very happy outside of work. About 30 percent of Pathologists claimed that they take more than 4 weeks of vacation. Not having patients is one of the perks of Pathology, as well as possibility of working 9 to 5.

4. Radiology

The first letter of R.O.A.D. is here, with the burnout rate of 49 percent, and the severity of burnouts of 4.2. Happiness at work for Radiology is 33 percent, and happiness outside of work is 69 percent. However, almost 50 percent of Radiologists claimed that they take more than 4 weeks of vacation, which is exceptional. Not having patients is probably the primary motivator for choosing Radiology, instead be prepared to deal with computers and horrible software, so coding skills can definitely make your life easier in this field.

3. Anesthesiology

We are continuing our list of medical specialties with best quality of life with Anesthesiology that has very high burnout rate of 51 percent, but the severity of burnout is not that high at 4.1. Happiness at work is 33 percent, and happiness outside of work is 69 percent. Even if we chose to make this list without the vacation data Anesthesiology would end up on the list, though in the bottom of it, so the fact that 50 percent anesthesiologists claimed that they take more than 4 weeks of vacation which is best among all specialties, helped a lot in the ranking.

2. Orthopedics

Orthopedics that ranked 2nd on the list of medical specialties with best quality of life have the burnout rate of 49 percent, the severity of burnout of 4.1. Happiness at work is 37 percent, and happiness outside of work is very good at 71 percent. More than 20 percent of Orthopedists claim, that they take more than 4 weeks of vacation. According to Medscape physician compensation report for 2017 Orthopedics is the specialty with the highest average annual compensation of $489,000.

1. Ophthalmology

Ophthalmologists have the burnout rate of 43 percent, which is second best after Psychiatry & Mental Health, and the severity of burnout of 4. Happiness at work is at 42 percent which is again second best after Dermatology. Happiness outside of work is excellent at 74 percent. Ophthalmology is not only O in the R.O.A.D. to success, but is also the best ranked of all the specialties in our list of 12 medical specialties with the highest quality of life.