Can a Muslim women pursue a career in medicine (Islamically acceptable)?

Question

As a high school student I am extremely confused about the compromise between religion and occupation. I'm aware that there are guidelines for this but say you wanted to do nursing or medical school, you would have to go through the clinical practice which involves association with the opposite gender, so would that be Islamically acceptable?

Keeping in mind the situations you would face for example, during clinical practice in nursing, you will be taught and expected to know how to "clean up" a patient whether it be male or female, and this would mean being exposed to body parts of the opposite gender? Is that allowed?

Also as a doctor you will obviously have to go through the practice (residency) in which you will face diseases involving the opposite gender in certain areas? I just wanted to clarify if this was okay and if there are barriers, what would the other options be. (no matter what career out of the 2, you will still have to go through the building blocks and they can't be discarded, how will this work?)

Jazakhallah for taking the time to address my questions.

Ps.I know a few Muslim nurses in full hijab that practice but I just feel uncomfortable after realizing the part where I will have to deal with visual content of the opposite gender.

Answer 1

Ideally in an Islamic society hospital services must segregated. Male nurses for males and females for females. Otherwise such compromises are inevitable. Personally I don't like such a job because even with a religious justification to legalize our urgent circumstance, it's not how things work in an ideal Islamic society.

Answer 2

The following Fatwa is in Arabic, so I will do my best to summarize and be informative.

https://www.islamweb.net/ar/fatwa/145511

It's Ok for the Muslim woman to work as a doctor as it's a necessity in the society, as long as she is working according to Islamic limits, and of course it's not allowed to treat male patients if this would make her see the male's genitals or so unless there is a necessity or a severe risk on the patient's life.

The fatwa mentions working as a doctor and studying medicine, and it's known what medicine students have to do from exposure to opposite site and so on.

The Muslim woman is rewarded the same as the Muslim man, Imam Shafi says medicine is the second most important science after religious sciences, and Muslim women need women Muslim doctors to treat them. You can also specialize in any field of medicine not just gynecology.