Any Catholic Medical Sonographers out there?

[Catechesis]

Hey guys, Im almost done with my senior year of high school and I was really interested in the Medical Sonography field. I thought what place better to get help from than the members of Catholic Answers who had helped me before in my time of need. I was just wondering if there were any of you out there in this field who could provide me with some inside information.

I’ve already found a good college in my area that has an accredited program in this study. For any of you that are sonographers what do you do on a daily basis and is it a job with good benefits? I was thinking about studying general sonography at first than specializing in cardiac sonography. Which one has a better outlook Cardiac or General? Also how is the pay for both? Is one higher than the other or? All information you can provide on this topic woud be helpful, thank you.

 

[elizabeth27]

Hi there! I’m currently in my last month of ultrasound school and have spent many hours at clinicals getting real world experience with real sonographers in both hospitals and imaging centers and I thought I’d shed some light on the field and answer your questions.

What you do on a daily basis largely depends on where you will be working which is usually a hospital or imaging center. If you work at a hospital you will likely be doing many “portables” which is where you take your ultrasound machine to patients all over the hospital and do the exam in their room or in same cases you can bring them back to a designated exam room to do it there. You will also perform many ultrasound guided procedures with a radiologist such as biopsies, paracentesis, or thoracentesis.

If you work in an imaging center, you will likely stay in one exam room all day and see patients on an appointment basis throughout the day. One tech will usually do anywhere from 15-30 exams each day plus occasional walk ins.

I think it’s a very good job and depending if you are PRN (as needed) or have a full time job, the benefits can be good (medical/dental/vision).

The specific field with better pay and job outlook is vascular. In order to become registered as a vascular tech, though, you must first be a general sonographer which means you must first pass your registry in either Abdomen or OB/GYN then go on to take your vascular registry. There is no cardiac sonographer… I believe you may be thinking of Echo exams which is a different field.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask! I think it’s a very rewarding career! Good luck!

 

[Catechesis]

Thank you so much! The information was really helpful! I hope you received my pm!