๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช Which medical specialties in Germany are not physically demanding/are least physically stressful?

Remember: no physically hard you might think a certain medical specialty is, it is nothing compared with what people in other jobs experience. Look at the poor women in the photo!
(photo source: Younesse BourrichHard work every day, just to eatCC BY-SA 4.0)

Firstly, how many medical specialties are there in Germany?

Around 45.

Which ones are there?

We have a group for each medical specialty in Germany. So, if you read the name of these groups, you will know the different medical specialties in Germany. List of the groups are in this link. (Consider being a member from now, so that you could learn more about your beloved specialties. Moreover, you can ask questions about that specialty in its respective group).

Generally speaking, in most specialties, the residency period is physically highly demanding. However:

  • As a specialist, it is no longer stressful to work in that specialty.
  • Since the corona pandemic, you can work in some specialties later on as a “specialist” (๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช der Facharzt) totally/partly from home and you will see the patients only online ๐Ÿฅณ. However, this could be less paid than working directly with patients (for example, as a family doctor in your own clinic).

The specialties which require low physical work are:

  • Radiology: Your job as a resident is like 95% of the time to look at photos ๐Ÿ˜…. However, a part of your training program is doing some investigations with the help of CT like biopsy from the lung or doing a lumbar puncture. But this is a very little part of the training, and you could simply later on as a specialist avoid doing that. What is good about radiology, later on as a specialist, you can live in any part of the world and teleradiologically (from a PC with an internet connect) work in a hospital/many hospitals in Germany.
  • Pathology: You work certainly in lab the whole time and you are mostly sitting.
  • Family medicine: Later on in life, it is more or less not that physically stressful. Since the corona pandemic, tele-consultation are now possible. However, the residency is not that easy, especially if you did the internal medicine part in a hospital. But of course, this is like only for 2-3 years. So, you can positively think like this.
  • Dermatology: But a part of the residency, you should work in hospital. This is not a little work.
  • Psychiatry: The residency in an acute care hospital is not easy and in some hospitals with only psychiatry beds (like 500 sometimes!) you will be walking like 500 meters between the different buildings. Moreover, you need to deal sometimes with aggressive patients. But later on in your own clinic, you sit all the time. Moreover, nowadays, psychotherapy starts slowly to be offered online. Detailed information about the psychiatry residency in Germany: link).
  • Rehabilitation: There are many rehabilitation hospitals in Germany. Regardless of the specialty, residents and specialists who work in these hospitals have much less physical, mental and psychological stress than working in the same specialty in an acute care hospital (๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช das Akutkrankenhaus). Moreover, there is a medical specialty called “rehabilitation medicine”.

Now, we want to know your experience. What do you think? Which medical specialties in Germany are not physically demanding/are least physically stressful?

Want to learn more? Questions?
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2 comments

  1. Hello, thank you so much for your infos. Please I will like to know which region (Bundesland) in Germany do you advise for a non Eu doctor who wants to come and do medical residency in Germany

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