How to chose my future medical specialty?

Question

Hi everyone, Ive just finished my last year in medical school and soon will start my internship year...

The problem is that I am not sure which specialty would suit me the most ...

About me, I concentrate more and do better when Iam doing things not in a group, not very good in patient-relathionship skills, 6 to 9 hours work time per day will suit me the most, Dont like surgery...

I am thinking of the following specialities

- Dermatology

- Radiology

- Pathology

Any advice will be great

Thanks

Answer 1

Not Dermatology since you said Pt/DR relationship skills not great.

I think Pathology would be interesting like being a detective.

I was always fascinated with infectious diseases.

Answer 2

Of those three, pathology is the one with the least doctor-patient interaction.  I work in a pathology lab, and our pathologists are all responsible for reviewing slides and making diagnoses, but they also rotate between gross room (cutting in tissues and frozen surgical specimens), bone marrow biopsies, fine needle aspirations, autopsies, and other procedures that we do.  There's some patient interaction - you can't get around that if you're a doctor - but minimal compared to most specialties.  The hours are pretty normal too.  Dermatology would have fairly normal hours but a lot of patient interaction.  Radiology will have some interaction, but I don't think you'll actually be "seeing" patients like you would in an office or as a surgeon/hospitalist.  I do need to say one thing though - if you're hoping for 6-9 hour days, you're in the wrong field... especially during internship and residency, where you'll likely be working 12-hour shifts and many of them.  Good luck to you.

Answer 3

If you're not good at doctor-patient relationships then why are you going into medicine in the first place? I would say patholgy would probably be best in your case. Dermatology is definitely out since you would need to interact with patients all the time and look at their skin and stuff. I would think they would want to be comfortable with you and if you're relationship with them isn't great, then I would think you would lose a lot of patients.