We previously covered the specialties with the highest burnout rates. But which specialties report the least burnout?
If you’re looking for a specialty with less stress, these might be for you.
At the 5th position on the list, with 43% of practicing physicians reporting burnout, is otolaryngology, often referred to as ENT.
ENT is a surgical subspecialty focused on diseases of the head and neck region, including the vocal cords, nose, sinuses, ears, thyroid, and parathyroid. In addition, ENT also deals with head and neck cancers and facial plastics.
The lifestyle of an ENT physician is family-friendly and flexible. They can focus on the clinic or split their time between the clinic and the OR. Clinic days will have regular 9-to-5 hours, and OR days can be either half days or full 12-hour days, depending on case complexity.
On top of the flexible hours, ENT physicians make approximately $523K a year, making this specialty one of the most lucrative. The excellent salary, coupled with a healthy work-life balance and flexible workdays, makes ENT a specialty with the 5th-lowest burnout.
4th from the bottom is pathology, with 41% of pathologists reporting burnout.
Pathologists study bodily tissues and fluids. Similar to radiology, pathology is considered a “support specialty” since it’s secondary to the clinical staff. Pathologists examine specimens to provide tissue diagnoses and manage all clinical labs ordered by other physicians, whether that’s microbiology, hematology, chemistry, or everything in between.
It’s a slow-paced specialty with low on-call responsibilities and an above-average work-life balance and lifestyle. The average pathologist works about 47 hours per week and earns $373K per year.
There are a number of subspecialties, including forensic pathology, cytopathology, clinical informatics, and medical microbiology, among others, which allow pathologists to tailor their careers to their specific interests. Pathologists also have little patient interaction, so the burden of informing patients and their families of bad news falls to other physicians.
Regular 9 to 5 hours, a great annual salary, little patient interaction, and a slow-paced day-to-day work life mean pathologists have the 4th-lowest burnout.
Coming in at the third-best specialty for low burnout is psychiatry at 39%. Psychiatrists focus on understanding and treating mental health disorders as well as psychological distress. They use the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual, Fifth Edition, to assess a patient’s symptoms and determine if they exhibit a diagnosable disorder. Psychiatrists can also help patients with psychological distress from past trauma, difficult relationships, pain, or other high-stress situations.
In other words, psychiatrists spend a great deal of time with their patients to get to know them, meaning it’s a slower-paced specialty that involves a lot of conversation. While these physicians do face plenty of charting, it’s spread across far fewer patients.
This is a trend you’ll see across the specialties with higher and lower rates of burnout. The specialties with less charting and general paperwork, which equate to time spent on a computer, tend to have lower rates of burnout.
Fast-paced specialties, like emergency medicine, which has the highest burnout rates, have a lot of charting to do because they see so many patients in a short time, back-to-back. Family medicine doctors and pediatricians also have a great deal of computer work and charting, which also directly translates to higher rates of burnout.
Psychiatrists make $342K a year, and the hours are hard to beat—even during residency. Weekend calls or overnight emergencies are rare, so it’s essentially a regular 8-to-5 or 9-to-5 job.
It’s also a very flexible career, as psychiatrists can work in multiple clinical settings, with multiple patient populations, and even hold multiple jobs at once. They can tailor their career to suit their specific interests in ways other specialties simply can’t.
Regular hours, good compensation, flexible practice settings, and a number of longitudinal patient relationships mean psychiatrists face one of the lowest burnout rates among physicians.
The second-best specialty for low burnout is ophthalmology, tied with psychiatry at 39%.
Ophthalmologists treat ocular and orbital diseases, which are conditions affecting the eyes and the surrounding structures. It’s a unique specialty because it isn’t strictly medical or surgical, but rather a blend of both, so there’s plenty of flexibility and variety.
Plus, it’s a highly innovative field with cutting-edge technology, like Ocular Coherence Tomography, or OCT, which uses near-infrared technology to produce cross-sectional pictures of a patient’s retina.
Procedures are quick, clean, and have a huge impact on someone’s health and well-being. Vision is such a vital part of someone’s livelihood, so it feels good to make such a significant impact on your patient’s life.
Beyond the positive impact they have on their patients, ophthalmologists earn approximately $388K a year, and many have a very reasonable work-life balance. Ophthalmologists don’t have to come in on weekends, and call is generally light. For the most part, it’s a regular 8-to-5 job.
Do note, however, that some ophthalmologists tend to handle more emergencies, depending on their specialization and practice type. For example, surgical retina ophthalmologists occasionally face emergent add-on cases, such as retinal detachments; however, even these can often wait until the next morning.
With good compensation, healthy work-life balance, and the ability to radically improve their patients’ lives, ophthalmologists have the second-lowest burnout rates.
And finally, at number 1, with only 37% of physicians reporting burnout, is plastic surgery.
Plastic surgeons primarily focus on soft tissue, such as fat, skin, and muscle, to reconstruct or reshape a patient’s appearance or function. They can work on any part of the body, from the face to the hands to the feet to the genitalia, which differentiates these surgeons from other surgical subspecialists.
Depending on their interests, they can choose to specialize in reconstructive or aesthetic plastic surgery. Aesthetic plastic surgeons often run their own practice or are part of a small group, which means they don’t have to work terrible hours or compromise their lifestyle.
On the other side of plastic surgery, reconstructive plastic surgeons often have an incredibly meaningful impact on someone’s life, which makes the work feel purposeful.
Regardless of whether they choose reconstructive or aesthetic, plastic surgeons are consistently among the highest-paid physicians at $622K a year, and they also have the highest hourly rate of any main medical specialty.
Although patients may occasionally be difficult and often perfectionistic, aesthetic plastic surgery is a cash-based practice. These surgeons don’t have to deal with insurance reimbursements or a lot of the administrative issues of other specialties.
With flexibility of practice, customizable hours, few administrative responsibilities, and some of the best compensation of any physician specialty, it’s no surprise that plastic surgeons report the least amount of burnout among physicians.
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It is no surprise that these specialties are also ones in which the “work-life balance” is considered more reasonable.