Becoming a doctor may seem a dream job, but it turns out those already practicing don’t always agree.
Only 54 percent of physicians say they’d pick medicine if they had the chance to choose their career path all over again, according to a new survey by Medscape (h/t The Daily Mail). The poll surveyed 24,216 doctors and health care professionals in 25 medical specialties and found that declining pay and high levels of student loan debt have doctors increasingly dissatisfied with their professions. Substantial pay gaps between areas of medicine also have doctors upset, while male physicians are paid 40 percent more than females across all specialities.
Plastic surgeons are most dissatisfied with their jobs, according to the survey, with only 41 percent saying they were content. That's down a whopping 25 percent from last year. The Great Recession and sluggish recovery hasn't been good to plastic surgeons as many patients can no longer afford elective procedures they may have paid for in the past. In 2009, during the depths of the recession, total spending on plastic surgeries fell by 3 percent. However, a recent spike in the number of chin procedures has helped the industry begin to grow again.
Still, not everyone in the medical profession has it so rough. Professions like dental hygienist, audiologist and occupational therapist were all included in job site CareerCast’s recent list of the best jobs in America.
If it’s big bucks aspiring doctors are after though, they would do well to choose radiology or orthopedics. Those two fields have the highest paid physicians with a mean income of $315,000 each.