In this article let’s take a look at all the pros and cons of being a cardiologist.
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So without further ado let’s dive right in.
Pros and cons of being a cardiologist
Pros of being a cardiologist
Various types of specialization
One of the main benefits is there are various types of specialisations in cardiology like,
- Non-invasive cardiologist
- Invasive cardiologist
- Adult cardiology or pediatric cardiology
- Cardiomyopathy
- Coronary artery disease.
- Interventional cardiologist
- Vascular surgeon
- cardiac electrophysiologist
- Cardiothoracic surgeon, etc
Because there are variety of specialisations, You have the opportunity to select anyone depending upon your interest.
High salary
Another advantage is cardiologist also get high salary.
As a matter of fact the average salary of a cardiologist in America is around 440000 USD per annum and 130000 rupees per month in India. Keep in mind this is only average salary, your salary will vary on many factors like location, experience and specialisation of the cardiologist.
As you can see, cardiologist is very important and they can work in any government or private hospitals and also in many NGOs.
Good Demand
Another advantage is there is a growing demand for cardiologist in the world.
If you check the basic job of a cardiologist is diagnosing treating and preventing the diseases related to heart and blood vessels, most common heart disease type is coronary artery disease, This is also called as heart attack which basically means it will reduce the blood flow to your heart in the blood vessels.
This is the most common type of heart disease that people face and more than 17 million people die every year from heart attack worldwide, without getting into much detail, the main reason for this is build up of plaque in the arteries of the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart and this reduces the blood flow to the heart which causes heart attack, main causes of heart attack include obesity stress high blood pressure and cholesterol, smoking and high fat diet, diabetes and family history etc.
And if you compare this with present situation, many people in world are facing obesity stress and diabetes issues due to sedentary lifestyle, eating junk and bad food, work load and growing expenses which cause stress, for example India is considered to be diabetic capital of the world, so there is a growing problem of health diseases and cardiologist are only guys who can save people from death due to heart disease.
The BLS expects about 22,700 job openings for physicians and surgeons, including cardiologists, each year over the next decade.
Job satisfaction and happiness
Another advantage is you can have high job satisfaction, purpose in life, happiness and also a lot of respect from the society.
As I mentioned earlier that heart attack is the third most common reason for deaths, in America for example, one person dies in every 36 seconds due to cardiovascular disease and heart attacks.
These are just some jaw-dropping statistics about heart diseases.
And as a cardiologist you have the ability to restore the life to someone and prevent him from getting another heart attack and It is observed that people more than 65 years of age are more likely to get a heart attack
compared to young, and when You save somebody then you not only save a person’s life but give happiness to the entire family and your contribution will be remembered, appreciated and have significant impact for the family in the future also.
And because heart disease is the third most common cause of death you can have purpose and meaningfulness in your life that you are able to save people from death in the world and this can also bring you a lot of respect and honour in society & also because of your knowledge & education.
According to survey, cardiologists rate 4.2 out of 5 stars in terms of job satisfaction and happiness in their career.
Work in both medical and surgical process
Another benefit is cardiologist not just only perform surgical process but also practise medical process.
In most cases cardiologists try to avoid surgery, incision in the body, they first try to examine and study the condition of the patient, severity of the disease by trying out different tests and try to prevent & cure the disease with medications and treatment.
So as a cardiologist, You not just work in medical process sitting in your clinic alone but also in surgical process doing surgery and operation along with your team, nurses. Your job is a mix of both medical and surgical process and like other doctors like surgeons who only do surgeries whereas family doctors who only practise medicine.
Many Research opportunities
Cardiologist also get a chance to participate in research opportunities Apart from working as a doctor.
Because as I already mentioned earlier heart disease is the third most common cause of death of people worldwide so you can participate in research to develop new medicine and treatment to reduce the death of people due to heart disease and find out new medicine, equipment, solutions for heart problems and participate in clinical trials.
You can join universities like Harvard or Stanford which focus & provide more facilities to do research, and if you find out good medicine and better treatment methods then you can have significant impact on people’s life not just today but in future as well and doing research is also a good activity for your brain as You will be learning new things, improve your critical and analytical thinking, express Your creativity.
Future proof career
Another advantage is it is a future proof career.
What I mean by this is millions of jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence in the future but robots and AI cannot replace doctors and cardiologist completely.
It is because still there are some tasks in cardiology particularly which only humans can do based upon their experience and expertise of the subject.
But still the doctors will use many AI tools, machines to increase precision and reduce human errors in the operation like, Fractional flow reserve, Intravascular ultrasound, Optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging, etc
So the thing is, cardiology is a career option which is going to be in demand because more people are facing stress, obesity, diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, smoking and other bad habits and AI cannot replace cardiologist.
These are advantages of cardiologist, Now let’s take a look at the disadvantages of cardiologist.
Cons of being a cardiologist
Long & irregular working hours
One of the main disadvantages of is long and irregular working hours.
On average many cardiologists work around 50 hours per week, and there will be certain heart operations like coronary artery bypass surgery where the cardiologist will restore the flow of blood to your heart diverting the blood around the blocked artery.
These type of heart operations can take a lot of time, for example doctors might do this operations overnight, on average this operations will be 3-6 hours long in duration obviously the time depends upon the patient condition, age, etc.
And what’s more important is as a cardiologist, your job is to treat problems of the heart disease and blood vessels and these type of problems occur instantly to people like many people face sudden heart attacks so these are time sensitive conditions, as more time passes if the patient is not treated in time, It can cause severe harm and impact to his life so you may get midnight emergency calls and work in the weekend and holidays to do operations of people.
Because of this you can spend less time with your family and friends, This causes a lot of burnout and stress, and impact the mental health of the doctors.
Expensive and continuous education
Another disadvantage is expensive and many years of education.
Let’s first start with the cost of education, if you want to become cardiologist in America, 250000$ is cost for 4 years in public university and 340000$ is cost for 4 years of private university for medical courses.
Likewise, It will cost you on average 60 lakh rupees to get your MBBS degree in India, and more money to become cardiologist, and because of this many students take student loans and debts to afford education for medical school and there are colleges which only offer scholarships for students based upon their financial income of family and academics.
On the other hand, It will take you more than 12 years to become cardiologist after your 12th in America and more than 8 years to become one in India after your 12th,
So you will have to spend at least 10 years more after your 10th education if you want to become a cardiologist or any specialised doctor. again the health industry and treatment are always changing and evolving with new advancements in technology and science.
So as a doctor and cardiologist in particular, You need to keep yourself updated with all the latest practises and techniques of treatment of diseases so even after you spend a lot of time in education, after becoming one you still have to continue your education and it is going to be a lifelong process As long as you are working as a cardiologist.
Malpractice suits
Another disadvantage of being a cardiologist and doctor in general is you can get mal practice suits from your patients.
According to study, More than 138 million patients are harmed every year by doctors’ errors, 2.6 million people died due to doctor errors every year.
And if any doctor gets a lawsuit against him by any unhappy and dissatisfied patient then if the fault is with doctor then most probably the doctor will either be imprisoned for some period,
he will give money to the patient to cover the loss, or if the case is very serious then his licence of being a doctor will be cancelled and you can no longer practise operations as a cardiologist in hospitals anymore because you don’t have the licence to do it.
Apart from that your credibility as a good, reliable cardiologist in public will be reduced when somebody sue you due to malpractice, It can be mentally draining task and This can have significant impact on your career.
And if the case is not very serious, or maybe the patient is not interested in suing you, then he can opt for physical or verbal abuse and violence.
As a matter of fact in India, 75% of the doctors have faced physical and verbal violence at some point of their career.
So my point is, as a doctor and cardiologist you must be prepared to face situations like law suits and violence against you, so cardiologists have a lot of pressure, stress when they are doing the operations & treatment of heart disease to the patient.
Handle sensitive conditions
Another disadvantage is you can handle some sensitive conditions like severity of the condition of the patient and heart disease, informing to the relatives whether the patient is alive or died after operation, building a good relationship with the patient before and after the surgical process and improving the health of the patient by building a good relationship with them, teaching right knowledge and
techniques so that they can practise it themselves whenever they face such heart disease & heart attacks in future, providing medical and physical care to the existing patients, answering all the doubts and removing the superstitions related to heart diseases of the patients, etc.
This is sometimes both a disadvantage and also advantage as you will be building a good relationship with your patients.
These are all the advantages and disadvantages of cardiology.
With that said let’s end the article.
Conclusion
These are all the things you need to know about cardiologist as a career.
Do comment down what are your thoughts about cardiologist career option in the comment section below.
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