Juan J. Rivera IV

It has been two years since I joined the Cardiology Today team and started writing the Fellows’ Perspective column. It is time to move on.

For the past year and a half, since I have been running my blog, I have received hundreds of messages from people around the world who are in need.

Have you ever thought about what a fellow’s responsibility is? What is our role in a clinical team?

Suppose that a doctor tells you that you have three to six months to live. How would you react? Are you satisfied with what you have done and with what you have accomplished so far in life? Have you aggressively pursued your childhood dreams?

After many years of training, the beginning of the end is around the corner. I have started thinking about the next step, perhaps the most important one of the past 10 years – finding a “real” job. Please do not misunderstand what I mean by “real”; what we do is real all right, but the undeniable fact that we are highly educated, overworked, and shamelessly underpaid gives our past and present career positions a touch of fiction.

This is fellowship interview season; a time when residents across the nation finally get to play the script that they have rehearsed for quite some time.

This recent Valentine’s Day, it occurred to me that dating and scientific publishing are very similar processes.

Several months ago, I expressed in my column the sense of relief that I felt after the end of my clinical training in cardiology. No more call nights or six-hour rounds. I was transitioning to a research fellow.

There is no doubt that being a successful researcher with a long list of publications on your curricula vitae gives you a significant degree of academic freedom.

After five years of clinical training and a continuous call schedule, I am ready to put my pager away for some time.