Pediatric Cardiologist - The real life?

Started by mahurkar
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

mahurkar

New Member
10+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
So I've been doing an outside rotation in Peds Cards with a private practice physician (who's been in practice for around 15 yrs) because I wanted to see exactly what kind of lifestyle do they have, work-hours, family time, etc, to see if this is what I definitely want to do for the rest of my life. And while I am situated at a medium to big city in southeast USA, it seems that his patient load per day is usually around 8 - 12, and does invasive procedures on one or two days per week (1 - 2 cases in each day).

I was very perplexed to see such a small volume of patients (although I guess it kinda makes sense since there aren't that many Fallots or Truncus Arteriosus walking around lol) for a pediatric sub-specialist. So my question is, is this pretty much the "normal" or "usual" scenario for a Ped Cardiologist around the country? Or is he just a very laid back and relaxed guy? I obviously don't want to ask him these questions as I wouldn't want to hurt his feelings lol. But I would like to know if other cardiologists at other places get to see a much bigger volume of patients and perform more cases inside the cath lab.
 
Honestly that sounds like a perfect lifestyle to me. Fairly typical for a non-academic setting. Frankly a perfect mix of invasive and non-invasive time.