How much you would make is based heavily on how much experience you have being a cardiothoracic surgeon. On average a cardiothoracic surgeon salary with twenty years experience can be from $245,000 to $434,000 a year.
How much does a Cardiothoracic Surgeon make?
Although you may work long stressful hours and put in a lot of sleepless nights during college, medical school, and residency training a cardiothoracic surgeon is well compensated. According to the Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery, you can earn between $134,000 to $631,000 a year. Other factors that weigh in on how much you would make as a cardiothoracic surgeon can include:
- Education—if you have a PhD will make more than a physician who is just an MD.
- Geographic location—how much the salary is differs from state to state. It is based on the demand for these types of surgeries, whether it is a big city or rural area, and the standard of living in that state. The two highest paying states are Pennsylvania and Illinois.
- Type of employment—if you are working for a non-profit agency you usually will make more with working in a hospital being the second highest type of employment.
When looking at the salary of a cardiothoracic surgeon you also need to figure in the benefits like health insurance, paid vacation days, profit sharing, bonuses, life insurance, paid sick days, pension, etc. On average you can expect profit sharing that ranges from $9,800 and $46,000 a year. Depending on the benefit packages you are offered it can add thousands of dollars to your salary factor.
Here are some examples of different working environments and the salary a cardiothoracic surgeon can make if they work there.
- Acute care hospitals between $155,010 to $398,010 a year;
- Medical services industries between $133.010 to $386,010 a year;
- Health care industries between $137,010 to $385,010 a year;
- Working in a hospital between $135,010 and $383,010 a year.
Cardiothoracic Surgeon in 2017
The year 2017 is known to bring great wages for those who want to start a career as cardiothoracic surgeons. Due to 4 extra years into the practice, these professionals can expect to have incomes that start to be comprised from $300,010 per year and up to $800,010 per year. All across the United States, cardiothoracic surgeons are well known in their career field to be on the top of the well paid professionals. After all, everything that they do is accomplished not only with a personal reward, but a financial one as well.
The several factors that influence the incomes of these experts include the years of experience within a field, the geographic location, the specialization level they choose to pursue, as well as the choice of practice, and type of employment. The earnings of each and every cardiothoracic surgeon will depend on the number of worked hours daily, but also on the weekly basis of worked hours. Another factor that intervenes and that will show variables in the incomes is the gender factor, whereas in this profession it is known that there are more men than women. This leads at a higher point in the earnings addressed to men rather than their working colleagues.
The incomes instantly vary from a state to another or from a region to another. According to the salary data survey offered by Indeed.com, the average salaries for cardiothoracic surgeons this year seem to be at around $116,010 per year. When it comes to specific areas, the incomes tend to vary according to the particular costs of living as well as living expenses that are to be found in that specific region. For instance in Houston, TX the average wage that is gained reaches somewhere at around $132,010 per year. At the same time, in San Francisco, CA the estimated average income that an individual takes home reaches at $158,010 per year.
On the other hand, those professionals that are working in the region of Alaska can expect at earnings that are estimated to be at $86,010 per year. At the same time in Utah, the salaries have an average that reaches only at $91,010 per year. The wages also vary according to the job that one performs especially in the category of related job title salaries. For instance, a cardiothoracic surgery physician can expect at average earnings that reach somewhere around $270,010 per year. At the same time, a physician cardiothoracic surgery gains around $300,010 per year. The lowest income in this category list is the one belonging to an instructor physician assistant that can expect to earn around $86,010 per year.
The job outlook for this group category seems to be one that is very reliable and very stable at the same time, especially due to the delicate nature of this profession. There are a lot of heart surgeries performed every year all across the US, for patients of various ages. The bad news on the other hand is the shortage that might occur over the next five to ten years that is mainly addressed to a lack of well-trained cardiothoracic surgeons, or due to the factor of retirement.
Cardiothoracic Surgeon salary in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom
In other areas of the world like Australia, the UK, and Canada the salaries for cardiothoracic surgeons are not as lucrative as they are in the United States. If you were a cardiothoracic surgeon in Australia you would only earn on average A$410,000 a year, but in Canada the average is even lower with it being only C$325,000 a year. In the UK cardiothoracic surgeons are some of the highest paid physicians but it still is not equal to what one could make in the United States. In the United Kingdom the average yearly compensation is 130,000 pounds.
Cardiothoracic Surgeon Career
Job description of a Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Most of the surgeons in this medical field specialize by performing a specific type of operation or by working with a certain population of patients. There are times that they may be called into the emergency room to perform an emergency operation to restore the functioning of a patient’s heart or lungs if they have failed due to an accident, heart attack, etc. If a person has been diagnosed with disorders of the heart and lungs they may need to have surgery if they are not responding to other forms of treatments. When you become a cardiothoracic surgeon you will be trained to perform operations on people with heart disease, atherosclerosis, which is hardening of the arteries, lung cancer, congenital defects, and many other life-threatening and non-life threatening medical conditions.
Some of the surgeries that a cardiothoracic surgeon may have to perform can include serious surgeries where they will be required to expose the lungs or heart in order to correct the medical problems to something small and invasive as making a small incision in the chest cavity so they can insert a small camera and manipulate tiny surgical tools through this small incision to either operate or see what type of problem the patient has.
When you are ready to start your career of being a cardiothoracic surgeon you can work with people of all ages or specialize in the field of working entirely with the elderly, adults, or children. A cardiothoracic surgeon could also specialize in certain specific procedures like bypass surgery, heart transplant, or cancer excision. In addition to doing operations a cardiothoracic surgeon will spend part of their time conducting research on the latest different surgical procedures and medical conditions. You may also have to attend seminars to learn about the latest technological advances in surgical equipment and cardiothoracic surgery.
How to become a Cardiothoracic Surgeon?
To become a cardiothoracic surgeon you can look at many years of schooling and residency training. After completing premed and medical school you will then go into residency training. The first part of residency is completing a general surgery residency that takes approximately five years followed by another two to three years in a cardiothoracic surgery residency. The certification a cardiothoracic surgeon gets is not based on the time that they have spent in the program but is based on the number of surgeries that they have performed in the operating room as the operating surgeon along with being able to pass a rigorous board certification test. There are also some colleges that have an option that instead of doing residency training for all those years you can do a six year cardiothoracic residency. This takes the place of the general surgery residency and cardiothoracic residency. As of 2015 there are only twenty approved programs in the United States where you can get the six year residency program.
Some of the colleges that offer this approved program include:
- Medical College of Wisconsin
- University of North Carolina
- Columbia University
- Mount Sinai Hospital in New York
- University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
- Medical University of South Carolina
- University of Kentucky
- University of Indiana
Before you get to the residency requirements you have to have premedical and medical training. When you are an undergraduate premedical student you can enroll in any major but you need to make sure that you are taking the prerequisite courses in medicine such as chemistry, physics, calculus, organic chemistry, and generally biology. You will be required to take at least a year of premedical courses. When you reach your junior or senior year you should start to get ready to take the Medical College Admission Test, which can take six to seven months of advance preparation. When you get to medical school you will have two years of introductory courses in clinical medicine and basic science along with twelve months of training in every one of the major clinical disciplines. When you are in your last year of medical school you will apply for residency training in general surgery.
When going the regular route of general and specialty residency in general surgery residency training you will do clinical rotations in various surgical fields to help you decide just what field you want to specialize in. During your last year of residency you will apply for the clinical specialization training that you have decided on, which in this case is becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon. When you complete this residency training you are eligible to take their qualifying exams through the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. You will have an oral and written exam along with demonstrating your clinical competency. Once you are certified you are required to maintain those credentials by taking certification exams and continue education training in that field.
Work environment and schedule
When you are a cardiothoracic surgeon you will be relying on nurses along with other surgeons to assist you during operations to make sure that the patients remain stable. One type of nurse that will work with a surgeon is a surgical nurse who will be responsible making sure that the cardiothoracic surgeon has the tools that are need for the surgery they are doing. There will also be an anesthesiologist working with them to make sure that the patient stays asleep during the operation. In addition, two of the people who work with a cardiothoracic surgeon will also have experience in this field. Those two people are the nurse practitioner and the cardiothoracic surgery physician’s assistant.
A cardiothoracic surgeon will typically work in a hospital surgical ward. You will perform both emergency and scheduled operations. There are some who even choose to work in teaching hospitals helping new surgeons hone their skills as a cardiothoracic surgeon. Before you decide to become a cardiothoracic surgeon you need to know that they often work long hours that are irregular. Many times when they work in a hospital setting they work as an on-call surgeon in that field and if an emergency arises where the patient needs surgery immediately they will have to go do it whether it is 8 p.m. or 2 a.m. If you are a member of a large team everyone takes turns being on-called. Working as a cardiothoracic surgeon there are no two work days the same. One day you may do three operations, the next day it may be five operations, you may work night shift being on-call, etc.
When you are doing operations there can be on-the-job hazards even thought everyone tries to make it a safe sterile working environment. Working with sharp surgical tools like scalpels, syringes, saws, etc, you could accidentally cut or prick yourself leaving you exposed to a variety of diseases and the patient’s bodily fluid. Because you spend a majority of your time bent over the operation table you could over time develop orthopedic problems. You will also be on your feet many hours of the day. You may also have to make life or death decisions which can make the job very stressful at times and can lead to burnout, anxiety, or depression.
Pros and cons of being a cardiothoracic surgeon
A cardiothoracic surgeon has a huge salary and the main rewarding in this job is that you are in the first line of defense for lives. You have great opportunities of work in each and every health care institution and facilities, but one of the major cons related to this job is that it can become extremely stressful on a daily basis.
Pressure is mainly due to the environment in which you are working. Saving a life will consist many times in the need to invest yourself a lot during each operation. You will have to make those instant choices that will change the direction of the events and work in the favor of your patient.
The pro is that you’ll get a chance to be there for the patients that you saved. Then, you can see the results of your work and the energy you invested with your own eyes. It’s all worth for the saved lives. The cons are all related with the job and this career that you choose to follow.
You’ll confront with some cases in which one surgery could last up to 10 hours and even more so you’ll have to be really fit and trained to resist physically and psychically. You’ll have to be every dedicated to your job, having to be always on call for the rest of your life. It’s a good job choice for any single person, because things tend to change when you have a family. Still, there are some professionals who succeed in keeping them both: their jobs and their families too.
Working as a cardiothoracic surgeon in the first few years assumes a nonexistent free time, and many hours to be at your job. One other con is that you cannot save each life every time, and there will be occasions when you’ll have to face the patient’s death.
The pros will still continue to stay as a solid argument. If you are dedicated to your job and you love this career you’ll have many opportunities to develop and grow while you practice in this field.
Cardiothoracic Surgeon job growth
The job growth for cardiothoracic surgeons is mainly related to the number of demanding in the health care system for these types of cases and the number of needed surgeries. The good news is that there is a real growth in the cardiothoracic services due to the number of several patients with various ages.
For the next five to ten years there are great job opportunities and increased chances in the number of demanding. There are also estimated increases in the number of those who will supply the cardiothoracic surgeons that are at the age of retirement, as well as a rise in the surgical procedures that reach a level of being correlated with the number of present and future cases. These professionals are among those that are searched for in the medical field.
The people are in great need for cardiothoracic services since there are plenty of individuals that are dealing and confronting with cardiothoracic diseases. This specialty is much known for the challenging surgical procedures that many times occur, the innovation that it brings and, of course, that rewarding of being able to help a life –in other words, great personal satisfaction.
Conclusion on Cardiothoracic Surgeon salary
When looking at the salaries of a cardiothoracic surgeon in the United States along with their salary in Australia, Canada, and the UK, it is easy to see that it much more in the United States. Although they put many years into schooling and work crazy schedules they can still earn over a million dollars a year. Cardiothoracic surgeons do perform some very delicate surgeries so what they earn each year is well deserved.