Rad Tech Vs. Nursing 2014

If I had my way, I would have done the Rad Tech.

My twin works at my same workplace. She is a Rad Tech, I am an RN.

Her pay is similar, and the stress is way lower. She sees one patient at a time, has clearly defined responsibilities, little charting. She has never had to wrangle a patient is withdrawl for 12 hours, deal with unreasonable families, answer call bells or do admission paperwork.

Long-term survival is easier in rad tech.

I am a retired RT® and I didn't like it at all. The pay sucked, I hated the assembly line aspect of it, and I didn't particularly enjoy the abuse that I had to deal with. As far as pay being comparable to that of an RN. Not where I live. My husband is an RT®(ct) and has been for 23 years. He makes a whole 4 dollars and hour more than I do, and I have only been an RN for 3.5 years. He does enjoy what he does but has good days and bad days just like nurses do.

There is good and bad in both fields. Rad tech is NOT stress free. I didn't find the stress to be lower. I might not have to deal with the same person going through withdrawal but I did have to deal with the drunks, the jerks, unreasonable family members, cranky babies and toddlers, etc. And long term survival is NOT necessarily easier in Rad Tech. It depends on a lot of factors.

If you don't enjoy it now, you probably aren't going to enjoy it later. If you are 100% sure you want to be in the medical field, there are other areas. Do some research, talk to other people, shadow if at all possible. This is a good first step. Don't go into something yo don't like, though. You'll be miserable. I know i was.

I am a retired RT® and I didn't like it at all. The pay sucked, I hated the assembly line aspect of it, and I didn't particularly enjoy the abuse that I had to deal with. As far as pay being comparable to that of an RN. Not where I live. My husband is an RT®(ct) and has been for 23 years. He makes a whole 4 dollars and hour more than I do, and I have only been an RN for 3.5 years. He does enjoy what he does but has good days and bad days just like nurses do.

CelitcGoddess, Do you enjoy nursing? Have you seen the negativity and back-stabbing that I have read about? Are you and your co-workers over-worked and under-staffed to the point where patient safety maybe a concern and the stress is affecting your health? I think I may have read too many horror stories on this board...

Thanks again!

Yes, I enjoy nursing. I am much happier now than I was in rad tech. I have a job I like, I work with a good group of nurses and so far, in this job, I haven't dealt with the backstabbing. I did in my former job though. It happens in some places. However, something to keep in mind, it happens in all fields. It just isn't nursing. No matter where you work, you are going to find backstabbing and negativity. It happens in Rad tech, retail, teaching, engineering (and if you want to see some backstabbing, go work with a group of engineers, boy howdy!)

As far as stress, yes it's stressfull. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't. I have days though where it isn't bad. Most days my patient load is 5/6. This is normal for a night shift nurse in my area. Lately, we've been short, but the census has been low. When it was high, I"ve had up to 8 patients. I can count on one hand how many times that has happened. I have also had times when I"ve only had 3 patients. I can't say my health has been affected at this job. (I've been out for a funeral, and that is about it). I work at a good facility, with a good group of nurse and I consider myself lucky. Others stories will differ. And I will vent about my job, no doubt about it. Because I will have bad days. But overall, I am happy.

What about working as a radiology nurse?

What about working as a radiology nurse?

Actually I have been talking to our radiology nurse about my thoughts and she is super supportive. She has specialized in many things and is now doing the radiology nursing thing and really likes it. She doesn't really have to know anything about imaging itself per se. She supports the radiologist during some of our more invasive procedures and then supports the patient during recovery. She said one of her favorite parts of nursing is the fact that your can go out and do so many things with your license!

I had a dear friend who wanted desperately to go to medical school, but his family was pushing for him to go to pharmacy school instead as they were mostly pharmacists. My friend was going to succumb to the family pressure and go to pharmacy school, then go to medical school. I had a long discussion with him and he ultimately decided to skip pharmacy school and just go to medical school. He couldn't be happier. So the moral of the story is this, decide on something that you think will make you happy long term. There is nothing holding you back from switching careers down the road if you find that you aren't happy with your current field. Of course, there are other areas of medicine to work in, such as respiratory therapy. I have to tell you, our respiratory therapists are worth their weight in gold. They will come up and help us with setting up different oxygen delivery systems that we don't have on the unit, they set up BiPAP, do ABG's, etc...

So the moral of the story is this, decide on something that you think will make you happy long term.

This is actually what was making me question the medical imaging program to begin with. I just can't see myself doing that for 35 or so more years. All the techs seemed so stagnant and cynical and bored...

I finished and got my RT degree in 2009 and was hired at an Urgent care clinic for over 3 years. The company downsized and I was laid off. I have been looking for an rad tech position for at least 6 months and no hospital would hire me because I have no hospital experience. So, I decided to go back to school to be an LPN, which I am a current student, then RN and maybe MSN. My advice to people who are undecided on which field of study to get into-- search for job openings in whichever field in your area and the job outlook. Something else to consider, think about how many diagnostic staff there are in a hospital vs nurses. There are definitely more jobs out there for nurses. So now, hopefully I will be able to combine both and be a radiology nurse! yey..