Interventional fellowship... or not?

[josephf1]

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What do u think the pros and cons of doing an IVC fellowship are?
Just did a month in ath lab and am thinking about it... a little.
Still scared of the stress, the stemi call, the radiation, the lead, law suits, working with nurses and techs that can make you insane. the peace and quiet of echos and nuchs might be better. but to train 10 years and be able to do only 1 more and be a real life saving individual also seems attractive, and maybe the money is better in some locations. any PGY4/5s thinking on these lines as well? How will/did u decide what to do in the end?

 

[joejabjab]

I have similar interest and reservations

 

[sacrament]

I'm doing an interventional year for one reason and one reason only: I think it's pretty fun. If you don't think it's more fun than the other things you can do in cardiology, then you shouldn't do it. The money is marginally better in most places, but the lifestyle is usually worse. (And while reimbursement could change for the worse, lifestyle will never change for the better.) Personally, I don't think the modest pay bump is--in and of itself--worth the additional lifestyle impact unless you legitimately enjoy the work. It's like everything else in medicine.

 

[C5toC9]

what do you like about interventional?

 

[supp-2]

My take..

Pro's:
1) Interventional gives you an additional skill set.. You'll be more valuable going forward because you can do stuff that no one else can do (STEMI, esp). PCI is very valuable to hospitals so if the trend towards hospital employment continues, I think it can only help. If nothing else, hospitals will need STEMI coverage and will need a few interventional guys for that - whereas how many EP docs does a community really need??

2) One of the very few times in medicine where you can actually save someone's life occurs in the cath lab (at least a quick fix). Seriously, what other specialty do where you can actually save peoples lives. Besides some of the surgeons, not to many other people can say that. So that in a sense is gratifying.

3) Definitely mixes it up the grind of clinic/ward work (if you need that).

4) More of a macho, surgery mentality that appeals to some.

Negatives:

1) Obviously life style - coming in in the middle of the night isn't fun if you have to do it for 40+ years

2) Causing harm - probably nothing worse than causing a complication (or just being a part of a complication). This in and of itself makes me question if I want to do it. You can have some perfectly healthy person die on your hands when you're doing an elective non-mortality benefiting procedure. "Routine" caths can become disasterous. Family practice docs might whine about their pay - but guess what - their job is actually pretty easy - it might be annoying but their not going to kill one of their patients if they mess up (or even if they don't really mess up). That is a big responsibility.

3) I guess as pay comes down it might annoy some interventional guys that have to do an additional year and are sometimes given more demands (more call, ect).

3)

 

[dragonfly99]

My take..

Pro's:
1) Interventional gives you an additional skill set..

2) One of the very few times in medicine where you can actually save someone's life occurs in the cath lab (at least a quick fix). Seriously, what other specialty do where you can actually save peoples lives. Besides some of the surgeons, not to many other people can say that. So that in a sense is gratifying.

3) Definitely mixes it up the grind of clinic/ward work (if you need that).

Negatives:

1) Obviously life style - coming in in the middle of the night isn't fun if you have to do it for 40+ years

2) Causing harm - probably nothing worse than causing a complication (or just being a part of a complication)....You can have some perfectly healthy person die on your hands when you're doing an elective non-mortality benefiting procedure. "Routine" caths can become disasterous. ...That is a big responsibility.

3)

Quoted for truth.
but remember even for invasive cardiology but noninterventional, you can mess someone up during a cath...but lots less likely than when doing an intervention.