Medical Staff Occupational Outlook for 2008 - 2009

Well, here's some good news for a change from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition on the medical profession. The Handbook reports the medical profession will see growth, but you have to know where to look for it.

For registered nurses, it reports:

• Registered nurses constitute the largest health care occupation, with 2.5 million jobs.
• About 59 percent of jobs are in hospitals.
• The three major educational paths to registered nursing are a bachelor's degree, an associate degree, and a diploma from an approved nursing program.
• Registered nurses are projected to generate about 587,000 new jobs over the 2006-16 period, one of the largest numbers among all occupations; overall job opportunities are expected to be excellent, but may vary by employment setting.

RNs will grow at different rates in different industries. Those with the highest project growth rate for employment are as follows:

• Offices of physicians: 39%
• Home health care services: 39%
• Outpatient care centers, except mental health and substance abuse: 34%
• Employment services: 27%
• General medical and surgical hospitals, public and private: 22%
• Nursing care facilities: 20%

For physicians and surgeons, the handbook reports the following key points:

• Many physicians and surgeons work long, irregular hours; more than one-third of full-time physicians worked 60 hours or more a week in 2006.
• Acceptance to medical school is highly competitive.
• Formal education and training requirements are among the most demanding of any occupation, but earnings are among the highest.
• Job opportunities should be very good, particularly in rural and low-income areas.

Obviously, long hours won't be shortening any time soon. Almost half (40%) of the physicians work in primary care, but not in a subspecialty. The following list shows the distribution of physicians in primary care subspecialties:

• 12% work in family medicine and general practice,
• 15% in internal medicine
• 5.5% in obstetrics and gynecology
• 7.5% in Pediatrics

The other half at 59% focus on specialties with surgical specialties leading the pack at about 10%. We expect to see the need for physicians and surgeons to grow faster than average -- a 14% increase between 2006 and 2016 -- for all occupations combined (not just medical). The job outlook is better for those practicing in specialties including family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology. Rural and low-income areas have the greatest need for physicians and surgeons.

Physicians receiving higher median incomes tend to own or are part owners of their medical practice. They earn more than salaried physicians earn, but note that earnings vary based on location, hours worked, years of experience, skill, reputation, and so on. While self-employment sounds more lucrative, they do have to figure out their own health insurance and retirement plans.

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