lorarami

Anyone in the Baton Rouge area?? Seems no one is posting from my area? I am very curious to know what the pay is here as I have heard it is lower in the south.

I think you should go for it then. I went to X-ray school because I let a friend talk me into it. What I really wanted to do was nursing. So here I am at 42 looking into nursing school. Follow your bliss, don't worry about the job market and everything will fall into place. I wish you the best!

Why don't you try to shadow an US tech. I don't do US, but I am an X-ray tech so I can tell you that their work is not stress free by any means. Of course as with most medical jobs it depends on where you work. Hospital vs. clinic. In the hospital US techs are VERY busy and under a great deal of pressure to do routine scheduled exams AND accommodate inpatient orders as well as ER patients. You also have to be on call for the over night hours. It is a great career, but not easy by any means. I say chose what your heart wants to do, just make an informed decision. Best of luck whichever way you go.

I am an XRay tech who is currently looking into nursing school. Every city is different of course, but where I live the xray tech market is very saturated. I graduated in 1998 and you could write your ticket back then, now it's hard to get a job. New schools have opened and flooded our area with techs. There is a lot more to radiology than most people realize and after you get you get your RT there are so many options for advancement....Nuc Med, Ultra sound, ect. You can make a great living in this field, but I assure you it is a very physically tasking job and not for everyone. shadow a tech if you can, make sure you shadow while they are doing basic radiology like flouroscopy, portables, surgery, ER as opposed to specialties as this is where most techs begin their careers after school. Good luck!

I believe it is for 6 weeks straight. Maybe I misunderstood. I am going to call tomorrow and make sure. I know when I went to Xray school we were in clinicals for almost the entire 2 years. I am hoping it's more as I find that is where we get our best experiences from.

I have been rather surprised that the time spent in clinicals at my local LPN school is only 6 weeks toward the end of the 15 month program. Is this about right? I thought there would be much more hands on patient care.

Thank you, I am moving forward with the application process! I have sacrificed 8 years for our family, now it's time to do something for me!

Thank you all for your advice, it is greatly appreciated. I definitely don't want any more regret, I've had my share. Shadowing an LPN would be a great idea so that I will have no doubts about my choice. I think one of the reasons I disliked Xray so much is because there wasn't much interaction with the patients. We would do our studies and off they would go. Some people liked that about Xray, I always found myself wanting to help more and follow up with inpatients that came down for an upper GI or Barium enema. I wanted to be more hands on with them. I believe my husband is wrong as well. I believe if you follow your passion that everything you need will find you. Thanks again for your responses, they help a great deal.

I am a registered Xray tech who hasn't worked in 7 years, I've been a stay home mom. My son is older now and I'm ready to do something for myself. I never liked Xray, and only went into it because I let a friend talk me into going. I was 26 and figured taking the quickest route to a good paycheck was the right decision. I knew in school I hated Xray, but I wasn't about to quit. I was taking pre-reqs for nursing but let that dream go since the waiting list was so long. Now at 42 I feel like I want to go back to school. The RN programs in Baton Rouge are very hard to get into so I am looking not an LPN program and if I still want to, get my RN later. My husband is not being supportive at all. He thinks I'm going " backwards" becoming an LPN since I can make more money as an Xray tech. Any advice on the LPN school. I feel good about it but he has me second guessing myself. Thanks!

I am 42 and after many years of feeling lost in my career I can only plead for you to follow YOUR dreams. If you don't you will regret it and there is nothing worse than regret. Your mom will eventually understand!