Training shouldn’t be purgatory: the consultant cardiologist

Abstract

When choosing to specialise in cardiology, Rob Egdell worried that he was taking the easy route as he enjoyed it so much “I dabbled with lots of other complicated things, but always came back to cardiology,” says Rob Edgell. “I was worried that something I enjoyed and found straightforward might get boring. But if you enjoy it, you do it with vigour and energy, and you’re fulfilled by it.” That he made this choice is clearly a relief to the consultant cardiologist at East Cheshire NHS Trust in Macclesfield—he has loved caring for cardiac patients ever since. It also prompts him to recommend to resident doctors that they choose a specialty they enjoy. “Even when you’re focused on the end game of becoming a consultant or a GP, training is a long process and you can’t really go through it as a sort of period of purgatory,” he advises. “You have to enjoy what you’re doing or life feels miserable, and …