Upon finishing medical school, you may still be undecided about which specialty you want to further your knowledge and pursue your career in. When considering all of your options, it’s important to ultimately choose the right path for your working, salary and location expectations.
If you’re considering a career path as a cardiologist, keep on reading to find out more information on what the role entails.
What does a cardiologist do?
In your role as a cardiologist, your main responsibilities will be to improve the patient’s quality of life after a life-changing event like a heart attack, heart failure or a heart rhythm disorder. It is also vital you monitor patient’s conditions such as how their diseases are progressing and how they can also be prevented. You will likely care for patients with conditions such as:
- Angina (chest pain which is caused by narrowing of the coronary arteries)
- Arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat)
- Cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle) with heart failure including pulmonary
- Coronary artery thrombosis or myocardial infarction (heart attack) which is often associated with high blood pressure and high cholesterol
- Diseases of the arteries (atherosclerosis, arteritis, atheroma)
- Heart murmurs due to heart valve disease
- Hole in the heart and other forms of congenital heart disease
- Oedema (accumulation of fluid)
What are some of the benefits of being a cardiologist?
As well as making a drastic different to the lives of your patients and their families, you will have access to a range of benefits working as a cardiologist under the NHS. These include:
- Flexible working patterns
- High income, even as early as when you first begin your career as a cardiologist
- The ability to work anywhere in the world
- Access to an excellent pension scheme
- Great holiday entitlement
- NHS discounts
Qualifications and skills
For this role, you will need to have excellent communication skills to manage a range of relationships with colleagues, patients and their families to keep them updated with progress. Due to the high pressure nature of this role, you will need remain calm in tense situations and build up an emotional resilience so that nothing clouds your judgment. As well as this, teamwork and being able to delegate effectively and make decisions will be crucial in your day to day responsibilities.
Your first step in gaining the relevant qualifications needed for this role will be going to medical school. To be accepted onto a 5-year undergraduate degree course in medicine, you will typically need to have excellent GCSEs and 3 A or A* results at A-Levels – including chemistry, biology and sometimes maths and physics.
Are you looking to further progress within your career as a cardiologist? We currently have a wide range of roles available so start applying today.
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