In your daily life, you might have been familiar with the term check-up. Each of us may have gone through it once where they ray to examine each and every part, and then the reports are handed over to the Specialist in the field and examined. No matter how minute the role of these machine experts may be in the medical industry, we would be doomed without them.
Not only do they help you detect cancer at the early stages of your life, but they also let you capture those amazing first moments in your Life when you first see a glimpse of your baby through ultrasound. They are the integral and fast-growing part of the medical industry, which is growing rapidly and generating employment at an even faster rate. This job has perks to offer in terms of salary and in terms of stories.
Ultrasound Technician Job Description
An Ultrasound Technician or simply a sonographer is shouldered to use high frequencies to take scanned pictures of the internal organs. Though you will be surrounded by high frequencies all day, still, this doesn’t lose the excitement it has. However, to excel at this job, you have to excel on all the machines that will help you take pictures. For that, you ought to be a pro at technology and master these instruments quickly. As technology is changing faster, you should be comfortable with any technology, which is what is going to help you in this job.
Job Description
In this job, you would be required to work closely with the patients and doctors who may specialize in various fields such as obstetrics, gynecology, breast, abdominal, cardiac sonography, etc. However, you can also choose the field you want to specialize in and work.
If you always had some interest in biology or human anatomy plus new trends in technology, then this is a field for you as it lets you do both. With this, you can kinder both of your passions at once. You would have to work in a hospital or a medical scenario, then this job can take away your precious sleep, and you might need to overwork on some of the weekends too, but nothing can match the job satisfaction you will have.
Other job titles in this field that interest you more are ultrasound tech, diagnostic medical sonographer, or simply sonographer. This field ensures you an out-of-the-league experience and a lot less competition, unlike many medical fields; therefore, get a degree or specialized training. You are all ready to handle this medical post with pride. Though each of us strives to become an outstanding doctor, a person should also keep side career options open. Sometimes, better opportunities reside in those, which is a better option than many other fields with cutthroat competition.
Job Requirements
Though this job is growing and expanding with various options, you will still need to master some skills to be just the perfect fit for the post. However, the main requirement for you will be techno-friendly but there also some other skills other than technology which needs to be enhanced and they are given as follows:
- Education, training, and certification: Apart from earning a degree or joining some certification program, one extra step you need to go through is licensing. Some states might require you to be licensed to work as a sonographer. However, this totally depends upon the area you live or want to work in. You can find out whether your state is one of them that requires licensing with the help of a simple tool called the License finder tool by Career One Stop, or you can Google it and know it all.
Unlike many other jobs, certification is not required in this one, but you might end up jobless if you don’t get it done. So, my advice for you is you should get certified as soon as possible. However, a college is required, and it would take a maximum of 2 years to get it. The field of study will be diagnostic medical sonography, to be specific. One year certificate may help you to get a hands-on certificate and then a job eventually.
- Listening skills: Apart from having a good college degree and certification or licensing if required, you will still be required to have some Listening skills as patients might want to tell you some of the other things that would be related to the diagnosis. You should be smart enough to hear what they need to say and process it and see if it might affect the diagnosis they are going through. However, during the diagnosis, they would require an assistant that would listen to them, and you have to be one as there might be no one else who could do the job other than you. So this makes it extra important for you to have some Listening skills.
- Verbal Communication: Listening may be a part of verbal communication, but the conversation will be a spoiled sport if you don’t speak. Also, the patients you would be examining might be full with their quota of questions. As you are incarcerated, you would need to satisfy them with your answers; otherwise, they will be totally oblivious to what is happening, which wouldn’t be good for your career. As the patients barge out to you with a million questions, you need to explain some things beforehand to them so that’s there’s no nervousness or oblivious people in the room. You can also chit-chat with them, so they get comfortable and let you do your work patiently.
- Comprehension: As a person working in the medical field, you are no longer oblivious to the handwriting of many doctors. As you would be closely working with doctors, you would need to comprehend what they need to say with the help of slips they would provide. A good hand at comprehending various handwriting surely will help you get through this stage of life.
These skills will help you become a great sonographer and help you through the journey, as only tech skills are not what the employer sees. However, you would also be required to have some extra skills apart from it.
Some other Skills
As a person working in the medical field, working day and night is common. Not only this, sometimes you would be working day and night with negligible breaks. This field would require you to have excellent stamina and the ability to go through days without sleep. As when it comes to saving lives, there’s no excuse.
Also, as a specialist, you might go through some life-changing confessions which could break the person in front of you. So what you need is to be strong to get through these ups and downs as for a sensitive person, it might shake their world.
Duties and Responsibilities
As a medical sonographer, you would have to examine people and go the extra mile when it comes to patients and the equipment you work with. There is a lot to a medical sonographer or an ultrasound Technician than just examining people and preparing reports.
Some of your Daily Responsibilities will Include
- First and foremost, prepare the examination room and the equipment you would require for the diagnosis. Ensure every piece of equipment is working properly and there is no mess in the exam room. Also, you would have to assist the radiologists in examining the patient and make sure they get the exact images that they would require for further treatment.
- Taking care of all the equipment provided to you and reporting any failure if you encountered it as failed equipment would eventually lead to a mishap in the future, which could risk people’s lives. In this profession, it is the most important.
- You would need to master the sonography equipment and record the exact anatomy that is required by the doctor using the sonography tool.
- Sometimes you might go the extra mile in taking care of the equipment and clean them as frequently you can to ensure smooth functioning of the equipment.
- You need to explain some of the workings to the patient so that they have a little of an idea of what they have to do and what is to be done. This would lessen the obliviousness if any, and there will smooth functioning from both parties.
- After examining the patient, you would also be required to write accurate reports of the condition of the part along with the reports of the machine.
- If you notice an emergency that needs to be treated immediately, you should report to the doctor quickly and also inform the patient. When dealing with lives, you need to be extra careful.
- Sometimes you need to work with a team; sometimes you have to work all alone, you should excel at both. If you are leading a team, you should have the utmost confidence to guide them well.
- When at work, you would require to greet patients with a demeanor and great warmness so they could feel comfortable discussing their medical condition with you.
- Confidentiality is one thing that should be maintained strictly in your area of the field. Patients should know what they ought to know but nothing more.
These duties and responsibilities are what you need to maintain daily as you work in your office or exam room.
Conclusion
This is all about the ultrasound Technician Job. This job has shown utmost growth and would be the most rewarding if you put in everything you have got. Certification and credentials can be easily acquired just by passing an exam or test. However, an internship in some prolific company would be a plus and get you a job more easily. For internships, you can skim through some amazing sites that will help you in this. Also, this field is sure to give you a six-figure salary as a senior and around half of it if you’re a junior in this field.
This field is sure to be rewarding and highly affordable in terms of competition. So be sure to do it the right way.