Nurse to Sonographer or Rad Tech

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I will be graduating an ADN RN program here in IL soon. Besides nursing, I have worked in EMS, and a few other medical jobs. The one other thing I still want to do is ultrasound. Is anyone familiar with going from RN to rad tech or sonographer?

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Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.

Can I ask why you are switching around? Is it that you have tried these jobs and don't like them, or that you simply can't find your niche? I certainly know rad techs who have gone on to become nurses, but not the other way around.

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Actually, I love them all. I still work on the ambulance service as a EMT-B and nursing is great. I just would like the challenge and benefit of learning sonography, since that would come in very useful at the ER I work in. I'm a lover of variety. Volunteer Firefighter, PT EMT-B, former CNA, currently RN

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Actually, I love them all. I still work on the ambulance service as a EMT-B and nursing is great. I just would like the challenge and benefit of learning sonography, since that would come in very useful at the ER I work in. I'm a lover of variety. Volunteer Firefighter, PT EMT-B, former CNA, currently RN

The ERs where I have worked had separate sonographers-separate department from ER. Have never seen ER staff do anything but FHT(fetal heart tones) or dopple pulses-not sonography.

otessa

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Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.

The thing is that even though you might have skills, the problem will be in whether or not those skills can be employed within your scope of practice (with the BON in your state and with your employer).

I get what you are saying, you like to learn new things and have many skill sets, but when you graduate and become a new nurse I think that the expectation will be that you learn to be the best NURSE you can be, at least in the beginning of your career. The learning curve in the ED will be steep, even though you probably feel like you know a lot from your time as an employee in a ED and EMT. I really think that you should focus on your new career for a while. I am always an advocate for further education, but I really think you should settle in to being a nurse right now and pursue rad tech or sono down the line a little. Good luck whatever you decide.

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Specializes in multispecialty ICU, SICU including CV.

I haven't seen anywhere that you can integrate these two completely separate jobs. RN school --> RN job, Radiography school --> Rad Tech job. It is my understanding that ultrasound is another year of school on top of radiography to get certified (it's a specialty Rad Tech field.) Sounds to me like you are career confused.

There are many fields that you can explore in nursing now that you are done. If you like diagnostics, maybe you eventually want to end up working in an interventional radiology suite or another diagnostic procedure area (cath lab, endoscopy, etc.) From a personal perspective, I don't know why you would go through an entire nursing program and then go through a radiology program unless you hated being a nurse and wanted to change fields but still stay "medical." You are at the beginning of your career. Give nursing a shot, find out what you like, and if you still want to do the rad tech thing later, you could -- I am thinking you will put that on the back burner though. I am pretty sure that the pay working as an RN is better, too.

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There are nurses who have had additional training and experience who do ultrasounds as part of their practice. The ARDMS exam can written by medical sonographers and by healthcare professionals who are performing ultrasounds, see the examination pre-requisite chart

http://www.ardms.org/downloads/app.pdf

dishes

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There are nurses who have had additional training and experience who do ultrasounds as part of their practice. The ARDMS exam can written by medical sonographers and by healthcare professionals who are performing ultrasounds, see the examination pre-requisite chart

http://www.ardms.org/downloads/app.pdf

dishes

Thanks dishes, this is exactly what I was wondering about.

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Your welcome KirbyEMT, if you are interested in reading past threads about nurses doing ultrasounds, you can use the search tool at the top of allnurses. Here is one interesting thread to get you started https://allnurses.com/radiology-nursing/ultrasound-in-nursing-295342.html

dishes

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