As a recent former medical student, I’d like to share the perspective of people my age as it relates to selection of an area of medical practice. These are not my personal opinions, but a glimpse into the aggregate.

The major concept is the work life balance. That is balancing salary and working environment and lifestyle (time away from work).

My classmates spoke of the ROAD to Life.
Radiology, Orthopedics/Ophthalmology, Anesthesia, Dermatology. The perception is that those areas of medicine offer the best “balance” after training is complete.

Areas that people think twice about and why.
Emergency medicine: Shift work (positive), but high burn out.
General Surgery: Long and hard training, but relatively low pay for the training. Many classmates who entered gen surg in the last 2-3 years have since left…

Primary Care: Low pay, decreasing autonomy and the work never ends. Those who go into internal medicine tend to be interested being a hospitalist b/c work is in shifts.

As health care reform is considered, so should the drivers and motivations of those who enter the profession.

Evan
@epiStoic on twitter