Want to make a career as a sonogram technician? Job description of the same is given below. Take a look at the following content which enlists all the responsibilities and duties of a certified sonogram technician.
Do you relish:
- gazing through humans’ bodies?
- serving a variety of people who are critically ill?
- using the latest technology for your work?
- learning more and more about the health care profession?
- working as an integral part of your health care team?
Ah, sit in. This write-up is exactly what you require.
He used a small hand-held device, (it was a transducer, he told me later) and sent a beam of ultrasound into my body. Oh yes! He also used some kind of a gel to aid the transmission of sound waves so that the image quality betters. What’s with the ultrasound waves to diagnose my illness, I barely understood. Later, he explained to me that the ultrasound waves reflect the objects within a patient’s body, so that they are translated into an image, then displayed on a computer screen.
You photograph it, record it, or create a video out of it… they are yours after diagnosis. He, was an experienced sonogram technician, the job of who impressed me, for there was so much to learn from. What else does a sonogram technician do? What is his job like? What are his duties? What is the process of becoming a sonogram technician? The following words shed light on an all-inclusive job description of one.
Job Profile: Duties and Responsibilities
Sonogram technicians/diagnostic medical sonographers/ultrasound technicians/ultrasound technologists use sound waves to capture images of the interior of a patient’s body, with the help of which they diagnose and treat medical ailments. Under the supervision of a qualified physician, a sonogram technician takes readings of angles, areas, and organs, and then sends them back for rendition. Many people mistake radiology for sonography, which results in a confusion. For your information, sonography or ultrasound is completely different from radiation, and is comparatively safer for both the patient as well as the sonogram technician.
Sonogram technicians bring into use ultrasound equipment for visualizing hypodermic body structures such as muscles, nerves, joints, and vessels, so that any anomalies in the human body can be determined. Too often, sonogram technicians determine the development of a fetus, and discover medical complications, if any. As technology advances, sonogram technician job opportunities have taken a hike too. More and more specialists are required by medical institutions all over the world to carry out the various processes involved within ultrasonography.
Specialization in any of the areas within sonography can help an aspirant gain expertise in that particular area that he has chosen. One of the most common specialties of sonography is the Abdomen Sonography in which a sonogram technician evaluates soft tissues, blood vessels, liver, urinary tract, pancreas, and spleen. On the other hand, Breast Sonography is another specialty where a technician assesses breast anomalies with the help of diagnostic mammography.
Similarly, Echocardiography and Neurosonology are two fields in which a sonogram technician is responsible for evaluating the anatomy of heart and the brain, respectively. Other fields of sonography include Gynecology (female’s reproductive system), Vascular Technology (circulatory system), and Ophthalmology (evaluation of the eye), wherein, a sonogram technician evaluates the respective parts of the body, diagnoses the ailment, and treats accordingly.
In a nutshell, following are the responsibilities of a sonogram technician:
- Performing diagnostic procedures, obtaining internal images
- Keeping track of a patient’s medical history
- Evaluating technical information, and treating accordingly
- Creating a written report of patient’s illness, and presenting it to the physician
- Supporting patients mentally throughout the process of ultrasound
- Maintaining performance equipment
- Diligently working as a team
Qualifications and Requirements
To advance your career as a sonogram technician, you need to have a two-year associate’s degree, or a four-year bachelor’s degree from a licensed college or university. After the completion of your degree course, you need to enroll for a sonography training program from a reputed training institution which will get you acquainted with anatomy, physiology, patient care, equipment, and medical ethics. Select any of the above discussed specialties of sonography, and fetch certification, in order to kick-start your career as a sonogram technician.
It’s a field in medicine – pay scale ought to be excellent! Medicine, with its many specialties, is one of the highest paying careers in the US, and a career as a sonogram technician can expose you to endless opportunities to frame your career luxuriously. Those dying to know the sonogram technician salary figures have a reason to gleam in pride – the annual salary of a sonogram technician with even a couple of years of experience in California is $69,000!
However, with increasing experience, salary takes a hike too. The job of a sonogram technician will fly high, even during the recession days, and nothing but the salary figures underlines this fact better. If the nature of work of a sonogram technician amuses you even a bit, don’t wait for the right time to apply, for the right time is… now!