Cardiology fellows are an elite group in the Medical field. If you want to get into a cardiology residency in any medical institution in the USA, you would have to compete with several other people to get selected. According to ziprecruiter.com, Cardiology fellows in the USA are between 75 and 83 dollars per hour. The average salary is 69,971 dollars per annum, with many of the top cardiology fellows earning as high as 600,000 dollars and above per annum. Cardiology fellows and Neurology/Neurosurgery fellows are among the highest-paid residents/fellows in the USA. Let us know about that the Salaries For Cardiology Fellow.
Factors that affect the salary of a Cardiology Fellow
The salaries of Cardiology fellows in the USA vary from one individual to another.
This variation in pay is due to:
Specialization
There are two cardiology residency specialties: Interventional and non-interventional cardiology. Cardiology fellows that are in the internal cardiology specialty averagely earn $215 hourly, while residents in the non-interventional cardiology program earn $187 hourly.
Gender
You might not believe this, but female Cardiology fellows earn lower than their male counterparts. So, if you are a female Cardiology fellow, it is likely that your gender might affect your income.
Years of Practice Experience
The amount of years you have spent practicing as a Cardiology fellow affects your income. For example, a Cardiology fellow that is just fresh out of medical school would earn lower than a Cardiology fellow that has been practicing for 6 years.
Location of practice
As explained above, the city where you practice as a Cardiology fellow determines your pay.
How to become a Cardiology fellow in the USA?
Here’s a detailed explanation of how to become a Cardiology fellow
The road you would take on your way to becoming a Cardiology fellow is a long one. You would have to jostle with several other candidates to get into medical school after finishing college, after finishing medical school you would have to intern in a medical institution before getting accepted into a dermatology residency program. Let’s talk about each step in detail
Undergraduate Degree
The first step to take for you to become a Cardiology fellow is to first get an undergraduate degree with a major in the sciences. It would take you between 2-4 years to get a degree that would qualify you to be admitted into medical schools around the country. While you are in college, it is advisable for you to get the highest grades you can get and maintain a very strong GPA, it is also advisable for you to volunteer for programs in the medical setting, maybe as an assistant or lab technicians in medical outreaches around the globe, this would give you an advantage over your competitors for a place in Medical school.
Medical school
After you have obtained your undergraduate degree, the next thing for you to do is to apply for and write entrance exams to medical schools. It is advisable for you to apply for several medical schools across the USA and Canada because they are very competitive and applying to several schools would give you many options. After you have gotten into medical school, you study basic medical science courses like Biochemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, and Pharmacology for your first two years. After that, you would write your first medical licensing exam, the USMLE
Step 1. The USMLE step 1 is made up of about 300 MCQs( Multiple choice questions). You should prepare very hard for this exam as it would be used to determine if you would get interviewed for residency programs after you have finished medical school.
In your third year in Medical school, you would begin to take practical classes in the hospital. You would be posted to different departments: Pediatrics, Radiology, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Nephrology, General Surgery etc. Then in your final year at Medical school, you would take your second medical licensing exam, the USMLE
Step 2. The USMLE step 2 is divided into two parts: a part that tests your clinical knowledge, Step 2CK, and a clinical skills part called Step 2CS. These exams would determine if you would be licensed as a cardiology fellow in the USA or not.
Cardiology Residency Programs
After you have completed your internal medicine residency program, you would begin a three-year fellowship/residency program in cardiology. It is at this point that you would earn between 75 dollars an hour to 83 dollars an hour. This is where you would learn how to treat the various diseases of the heart. There are different cardiology residency programs you can choose from:
Interventional cardiology residency
This residency program takes between 1-2 years. Interventional cardiologists are the ones who treat patients who have heart attacks. They do this by opening up blocked coronary arteries.
Electrophysiology
Electrophysiologists are cardiologists that manage arrhythmia(a condition whereby your heart beats abnormally). They manage such diseased conditions by implanting pacemakers and other devices that would help measure heart rates and reduce the risk of heart attacks.
Heart Failure
This is a one-year residency for cardiologists whose interest lies in managing complex cardiac diseases like heart Failure. They work with cardiac surgeons to perform heart transplants and implant artificial cardiac devices.
Conclusion
Becoming a Cardiology fellow is hard, but it is very fulfilling. Not only would you make a good salary as a cardiology fellow, but you would also be respected and you would be directly involved in saving lives. On your way to becoming a Cardiology fellow, you would have to make a lot of sacrifices in sitting for exams in Medical school and your internal medicine residency program, but it is worth the sacrifice.
FAQs
1. What comes next after I finish my Cardiology Residency?
If you want to work in an educational institution, you would become a faculty member in cardiology. You can also establish your private practice cardiology clinic.
2. Can I skip any of the steps mentioned in this article?
No, you cannot. For you to become a cardiology fellow, you would have to go through every step that was mentioned in this article.
