Clinical specialties

Selecting a clinical specialty is one of the steps in career development and often poses a problem. Exposure to many specialties during medical school is minimal or has not happened at all which means that sometimes this choice is being made from a limited knowledge base. Experience in a specialty during your clinical years may have been less exciting or poorly organised which may also bias you unnecessarily against a specialty which could suit your aptitudes or preference. Conversely a charismatic consultant may attract you to a specialty that will not suit you long term.

Training opportunities and workforce distribution also have to be taken into consideration so consider these aspects before making your final decision. Help can be obtained from the educational lead for the specialty you are interested in (see Resources|) or the Wessex Deanery.

Do not forget there are specialists in most fields who are keen to talk about training and working in their specialty listed on the resources| page, so do not hesitate to contact them and find out more - even if just to eliminate that specialty. You never know what might come out of a conversation with an experienced clinician!

Jobscore is a website providing current peer reviews of medical jobs in all specialties, at all grades and in all hospitals. It is free of charge to access this tool via the BMJ Careers| website.

Guides to clinical specialties

The following websites provide detailed information on each specialty:

Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) Specialty Training| 

NESC (NHS Education South Central)|