Number of Consult Months in Fellowship

[Ivabradine]

I've noticed a lot of programs have very differing number of consult blocks during fellowship. Does the more consult months = stronger clinicians/cardiologists? Some programs have no consult months in their last year. How do you go a whole year without that, and still be okay after graduating and starting as an attending?

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[AussieAg]

Does the more consult months = stronger clinicians/cardiologists?

No.

How do you go a whole year without that, and still be okay after graduating and starting as an attending?

Because everything you do in cardiology is in essence, a consult. Read an echo? You're telling someone whether or not to worry. Same with a cath (and you're fixing stuff). Same with EKGs. Same with general consults. Numerous groups have hired NPPs to do their consults. If a fresh mid-level can be hired to "run" a consult service, you as an actual physician will do just fine.
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[Aditya123]

I've noticed a lot of programs have very differing number of consult blocks during fellowship. Does the more consult months = stronger clinicians/cardiologists? Some programs have no consult months in their last year. How do you go a whole year without that, and still be okay after graduating and starting as an attending?

No, because a lot of aspects of cardiology are technical and have to be learned through dedicated elective months. For example, echo,TEE, cath, nuclear imaging can't be learned except in their respective rotations. A good program should be well balanced and offer a good number of electives. I think at the most 6-9 months of consults are fair. Anything more than that is likely going to come at the expense of your cath/echo/nuc experience. Also keep in mid that you do need a certain number of months in each modality to be able to get Level 2 certification

 

[ROBINHO]

DOnt look at the number of consults months. Different Fellowships are built differently. Some fellowships have a lot of consult months because they dont have a general cardiology primary service. Some fellowships take every cardiac patient onto their Cardiology service, so consults could be low yield consults from surgery. The number of consult months can also depend on how many fellows per year. Finally some programs are front loaded which means that you do a lot of work during your first 2 years, but in your final year, you do electives geared towards your interest.

 

[aafisahar]

you need a couple consult months in order to understand how to function as a specialist, but I would say time spent in the CCU is more high yield in terms of learning actual cardiology from seeing patients. Consults come in a few varieties, CHF, afib/flutter, chest pain, troponin, brady. That's like 95% of your consult base.

Learning echo, cath, tee, nukes, etc takes time and you can't really learn it on the job properly. A good program should have like 9-12 months of clinical work and the rest spent learning laboratory cardiology.