CACardiologist
CA
Career

Cardiologist

By the numbers
Typical pay
$496,010 / yr
Education to start
Doctoral or professional degree
Future demand
+4.1% by 2034
People in this job
17K
Figures shown for ·1 O*NET occupation
The work
A day, hour by hour

Days shift dramatically when emergencies hit — this is a representative but never guaranteed schedule.

06:30
Pre-round chart review

Scan overnight labs, ECGs, and notes on every admitted cardiac patient.

07:00
Inpatient rounds

Walk the ward, examine patients, adjust meds, decide who's stable enough to go home.

08:30
Cath lab procedure

Thread a catheter through a blocked artery; place a stent to restore blood flow.

10:30
Outpatient clinic

See a string of patients — read echos, tweak medications, deliver hard diagnoses.

12:30
Care conference

Huddle with cardiac surgeons and intensivists to map out a complex patient's next move.

13:15
STEMI alert

ER pages: heart attack in progress. Drop everything, race to open the blocked artery.

14:30
Family conversation

Sit with a patient's family and explain, plainly, how serious things really are.

15:30
Echo & test reads

Work through a stack of echocardiograms and stress tests, flagging what needs action.

17:00
Handoff & on-call

Brief the night team on every unstable patient; stay reachable if anything deteriorates.

Things you do
  • Read heart scans and tests to figure out what's wrong.
  • Thread a tiny tube through blood vessels to open blockages.
  • Implant pacemakers to keep a heart beating in rhythm.
  • Tell patients their diagnosis and walk them through treatment options.
  • Rush to the ER when someone is having a heart attack.
Decisions you’ll make
  • Is this chest pain a heart attack happening right now, or something else?
  • Should I open this blocked artery with a stent, or try medication first?
  • Is this patient stable enough to wait for more test results, or do I act now?
  • Do the risks of this procedure outweigh the benefits for this specific patient?
  • Should I tell this family how serious this really is, or ease into it?
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