Careers: Good Prospects for the Medical Specialist

Specialist doctors are in demand as never before. Between the years 2000 and 2007 the number of job advertisements has doubled. Ingrid Rebmann of mainmedico, a personnel consulting firm in Frankfurt/Main, spoke about the career opportunities for specialists at the career forum "Deutsches Ärzteblatt" at MEDICA.19/11/2008

Ingrid Rebmann at the Carreer Forum
"Deutsches Ärzteblatt" at MEDICA
© Messe Düsseldorf 2008

The reason for the high demand is, on the one hand, the increase in human resource needs in medical centres. "Hospitals are not only responsible for all-around care, but increasingly specialise in particular areas. And to do that they need qualified staff," explains Rebmann. On the other hand, nowadays jobs are not awarded as frequently to speculative applicants or in-house candidates as they were some years ago. This leads to more jobs being advertised, not only in the "Deutsches Ärzteblatt".

However, amongst the medical departments there are considerable differences. Internal medicine and Surgery, two major departments, require a large number of staff, however, they also receive many applications. Things look different in the department of Psychology and Neurology, where a shortage of skilled workers dominates. A particularly big boom in inquiries in the professional forces exists in Gynaecology. And in this field one sees a trend that is recognisable across the whole of medicine: feminisation. "75 percent of all professional applications in Gynaecology come from women," says Rebmann.

By now, half of the assistant doctors are women. 31 percent of clinical specialists are also female now, but only eleven percent of the heads of department are. In Germany men still make a successful career for themselves, even though many women have the same qualifications as they do. "This is a structural problem," says Rebmann. Often traditional work hours and less flexible models still exist, which make it difficult to juggle both career and children. However, many medical centres are already working precisely on addressing this issue.