Nurse or Sonography

[Ty96]

Hi everyone! I just need a little advise because I'm having a hard time choosing what career path I want to go into. I am currently in school and my major is Radiologic Technology. After I finished my rad tech program, I was going to go to school for sonography. Particularly OB/GYN. I am finish taking l of my pre reqs to apply for the program, and after taking my A&Ps and realizing how good I am at understanding the concept of how the body works, I found that I am interested in how to fix it if it's not working properly. In ultrasound, I don't believe I'll be dealing with much of the physiology of the body system. I've been doing a lot of research and am really considering a career in nursing, eventually specializing in labor and delivery. Does anyone have any advice that can help me decide?

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

I spent nearly 15 yrs working as a sleep technologist performing overnight sleep studies on patients. As the years went on I was no longer being intellectually challenged. Each night I worked, I performed the exact same test. It got monotonous. So, I looked at other allied medical careers. I looked into sonography (cardiac). But I realized that I would be going down the same road in a different direction. I would be performing the same test day after day. Fortunately, the university that I got my first degree from offered a 15 month ABSN program. I feel that nursing offers the most diversity in a career. If I get burned out of one specialty, I can switch to another specialty. Even within my specialty I have the opportunity to change roles. I can move onto transport/ flight nursing or learn ECMO. Radiology also has a variety of different work environments. Along with sonography, there is CT, MRI, Nuclear medicine, PET, etc. The only one that can decide what is the best career for you, is you. I had classmates that loved psych and would never work in NICU. I love NICU and would hate working in psych. Each person has to find their own niche.

[Ty96]

Thank you so much for your reply! That's the same thing I was thinking. I like to be challenged, and although many say that being an ultrasound tech is less stressful, I feel as if I will get tired of doing the same thing every day. I just get worried because I don't want to mess up and be responsible for a patient. An LPN nurse told me something about there are a lot of lawsuits in the nursing field and I don't know how true that is, considering I don't personally know any nurses.