Additional Information
It takes a lot of dedication to become a pediatric cardiologist. Educational
training in this field is costly and time consuming. Pediatric cardiology
requires four years of university, four years of medical school, three years
of a pediatric internship and residency, and three years of a pediatric cardiology
fellowship. Those wishing to become pediatric cardiac surgeons need two to
four more years of training!
"I think you first have to have a lot of endurance," says Dr. Cheryl Cammock,
a pediatric cardiologist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
"It takes a [lot of effort] to get through everything that you have to
do," Dr. Cammock adds. "You have your medical school, your general residency,
and then there's a fellowship. And the fellowship is very different from your
pediatric residency in that you're learning a whole new set of skills and
a whole new way of thinking about things."
Pre-med students should take courses in biology, math, physics, English,
and inorganic and organic chemistry. Some students may take courses in social
sciences and humanities as well.
How would a student know if they'd enjoy this subject enough to stick with
it for all those years of schooling?
"I don't know how you would know that, outside of exposure," says Dr. Cammock.
"The only way... they may know if this is a career for them is if they happen
to be taking some sort of advanced physiology courses and they have sections
on cardiac physiology and anatomy, and they are just completely drawn into
it and they just want to learn all they can about physiology of the heart.
"Pediatric cardiology is very different from adult cardiology, in that
it's anatomical defects," Dr. Cammock adds. That's because children's heart
problems are typically things they're born with, while adults can also have
heart problems that develop as they age.
"So we're not talking about normal heart anatomy -- we're talking about
hearts that aren't put together right. So if it's someone who loves the anatomy
of the heart and physiology and abnormal physiology of the heart and how that
affects the rest of the body, then that's probably someone who would like
this kind of job."