Cardiologists don't do surgery. They refer to surgeons who are generally specialists in heart surgery or chest (thorasic) surgery.
Some cardiologists do procedures to correct abnormal rhythms, clear clogged arteries, monitor patients during stress tests, read cardiac MRIs, echocardiograms and other diagnostic imaging tests as well as ECGs (measuring the electrical activity of the heart muscle).
What are the most difficult situations to control? How do you break bad news? What is the most satisfying part of your job? What is the most frustrating?
...Don't forget percutaneous valve repairs!
I think
LizzyM gives great advice. I have to share an anecdotal thought though. So many times I would read up on the procedure the night before shadowing (if I know what's going on the next day). Why? a) If I'm shadowing you, I'm
way interested in what you do b) I like to know things that I don't already know c) I don't want the heart doctor to ask me something really basic and for me to blow it, "So what vessel feeds the Right Atrium Mr. 712?" and have NO idea of the answer. So, I cover the basically basic
basics. The result? 99.9% of the time, nothing ever comes up in the realm of what I'm reading. Actually, it comes up on morning rounds, or with a resident on a case, but not with
me.
So, it NEVER hurts to read and ask for the sake of asking, but it will only get you so much if you are only asking to ask. In other words, questions are good if you're well read and truly interested, but not necessarily randomly tossed in so you can NOT sound foolish as you say.
Two cases come to mind. I was in LA volunteering at an ER and a doc was pimping a med student. It was rough to watch, he was harsh. He's getting angry at her for not knowing the normal ranges of a WBC. I really wanted to answer, I knew the answer ( I had just had labs done on my own blood and I recalled the range) , and I thought to myself, "I don't want to be in that position of looking lost." I didn't like the feeling that young student was going through. It felt really bad for her probably because I had been in those shoes before. It wasn't pleasant and it was a learning experience for me: know what you are capable of and expected to know. Period. Nobody is EXPECTING you to know things as a premed student, but I say to myself, it can't hurt. Actually, those words have been said to me, "We don't expect you to know anything..."
More recently, at my new spot, I read up on EKGs for morning rounds i was shadowing on that next day. The residents were grilled and I had maybe one answer in my pocket out of the 100 that were asked. Whew. It was rough. So, that night when the doc said it was nice to have me there, I said, jokingly, "Next time, I'm ready to point to the T wave myself, so please count me in!" In my mind, you get nowhere without throwing your neck out there. So, we'll see if he does that next time! I'll be the fall guy if I learn something. I don't care just yet. The DOC is nice, and brilliant. Not sure I would do this with a hard *****.
And most recently, I was shadowing anesthesia, my passion, and a REALLY cool doc who has become a friend (our kids play soccer against one another) asked me, "So, how many CCs do you use in the cuff to keep the ETT from leaking?" Well, I QUICKLY remembered an SDN thread about just this, and I shot out the answer, 15CCs!!!!! The Doc was great, he LAUGHED, FIFTEEEN CCS!!!!!!?????? So, I went down, 10CCs????? We were both laughing at the time. 10, are you sure, he replied???? 5!!!! I went down more! He then taught me the lesson, which I'll share. And ONLY at this POINT after the initial question, did I think enough to know the answer, but it was too late, he was teaching me now: Listen to her mouth, hear that air leaking back out? Yes. I did. He said, tell me when it stops as I put in CCs of air to the cuff. I listened, "It's stopped." He said, "You know how many CCs now?" He asked a resident nearby for the avg number: 7ccs. But I jumped in again, now having time to think and not just throw out a number to get it right, "HOW EVER many CCs it takes to stop hearing a leak from the tube is the answer..." And that was the answer!!!! Sure I felt stupid for a minute, but hey, I'm just learning. The moral of the story? This is what teaching and academic medicine and MED SCHOOL is all about. Questions and answers and learning by doing and seeing and watching and being there. So, read up, be interested and be involved. It can only help. Ask questions because you TRULY WANT to know, not to impress. We ain't there yet, per se.
Doctor 712
