Switching from IC to General Early in Career
First year attending and took a job that is a combination of general and interventional. Will be about a year into the job and realizing that I don’t enjoy the interventional component as much. STEMI call is stressful and don’t have good support in the group with challenging cases. Volume has also been low but I realized I don’t miss the lab. The general component is easier, less stressful, and I thought I would hate clinic but I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m thinking about transitioning to a general cardiology job and wondering if anyone has any advice or found themselves in a similar position. I know I would be taking a pay cut but I don’t find the extra money in IC worth it based on my spending and lifestyle (not an extravagant spender and lived comfortably on a fellow salary even before this year). The general job would be in a different part of the country that is more appealing for me to live in. I initially did Cath because I enjoyed the lab and am good at it. But now realizing I’d much rather focus on personal life and not have the stress of doing cases.
I had thought that the ideal job would be doing a few cases a week and then do mainly general cardiology. This is kind of the setup I have now but it’s hard to be confident in STEMIs and difficult cases/complications when you’re not doing a lot of cases. Any advice would be appreciated!