The medical field is something you cannot take lightly nor is it for the faint of heart. It requires a person’s full attention, dedication, and passion. But with so many jobs to choose from, you may feel stumped on where to start. If you’re looking for something that pays well and is unique, then you can consider becoming a specialist.
A specialist is a type of doctor that focuses their studies on a specific sub-category in medicine. Podiatrists are a type of specialist as they specialize in treating problems with the foot. If you’re not sure about the other types of specialists, then you’ve come to the perfect place. In this article, we’ll cover five medical specialists you can become.
Pediatrician
We’ll start off with one of the more well-known specialists to date: pediatricians. Pediatricians are specialists that dedicate their skills and expertise to children. These medical professionals can be a child’s primary care doctor ranging from their birth all the way to young adulthood. Their work is basically the same as a general medical practitioner including:
- Diagnosing medical conditions
- Prescribing medicine
- Treating injuries
- Performing physical examinations
Despite being commonly known, however, becoming a pediatrician is quite hard to pull off. For starters, you need to have at least nine years of education. This makes it one of the longest and most expensive careers you can get in the medical sector. While there’s no exact price, the average pediatrician can expect over $250,000 in tuition costs. It should be noted that the medical industry is one of the most expensive fields you can study in, especially when it comes to becoming a specialist.
Paying back such a high amount can make paying off your monthly expenses more difficult than it must be. However, there’s a great way around this in the form of student loan refinancing. Utilizing a NaviRefi student loan refinance is a process where you take what you currently owe in student debt and turn it into a brand new loan. This can reduce the interest rates as well as how much you must pay each month. As a result, it’ll much easier for you to budget everything out.
Dermatologists
Dermatology is a field that’s not really given as much thought as other types of medical practices. Dermatologists are doctors who have a knack in helping people improve the quality of their skin and treating various types of skin ailments. Acne, rosacea, dermatitis, sunburn, and shingles are all types of skin issues a dermatologist can help treat. To become one, you’ll need to have over 10 years’ worth of education, training, experience, and residency. Aspiring dermatologists need to be accepted in an allopathic or osteopathic degree, Allopathic are for those who want an MD and osteopathic is for people who want a DO.
Ophthalmologists
Ophthalmologists, or eye doctors, are medical professionals specializing in eye health. Their role is to help patients improve their vision by examining their eyes to find the right type of lenses, albeit in glasses of contacts. Ophthalmologists also help treat various eye conditions, like glaucoma, cataracts, retinopathy, and amblyopia. The process of becoming an eye doctor takes around nine to 10 years.
Anesthesiologist
If you’re looking for potentially the most difficult and challenging career in the medical field, then look no further than anesthesiology. This is by far the most expensive career you can get as the cost clocks in at around $400,000. Furthermore, it’s also one of the most academically demanding sectors as well. It can take practitioners up to 15 years to be licensed and certified as a professional anesthesiologist. In your degree program and residency, you can expect to learn everything about anesthesia, like neuroanesthesia, pediatric anesthesia, and obstetric anesthesia.
For all the work that goes into building this career, it’s also one of the highest-paying positions you could ever have. The average salary of an anesthesiologist is more than $400,000. In some cases, you may be able to make up to $500,000 depending on how much work you do. While we mentioned before that the medical field requires passion, this could not be any more true for anesthesiologists. This is a very intense and demanding career, so be sure to think everything through before making a final decision.