Ultrasound or nursing?

[bluestar776]

I'm currently in ultrasound school it's a great program :) but I often have nursing in the back of my mind and I feel so guilty because I have even applied for nursing for September and I know my family won't be happy with me..

For those of you nurses and nursing students is nursing worth it?

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

Wow. Just wow. I chose the wrong profession.

How often do you see postings for imaging positions? Not as often as RN spots.

[GM2RN]

Seriously?

Yup. I recently looked at postings at my hospital and pay was only $1-2 less than what I make. But like she said, echo or vascular pays best.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

I would get bored as an ultrasound/x ray tech. I like that as a nurse I can change fields & continue my education. As a tech you're really just stuck doing that. I hate monotony, even doing private duty drove me up a wall.

[foggnm]

If you've resigned your career path to two very 'tech' like jobs, then it really comes down to do you want to do a procedure/test (ultrasound) or take care of people? Nursing is very repetitive, but ultrasound will be even more so. Plus nursing offers a much broader range of careers and advancement options with more intellectual complexity, whereas ultrasound will only offer management or teaching as advancement. Ask yourself, do I like to to the same tests/procedures every day I come to work for 10 years? Do I want to take care of people and their families and provide physical and emotional care to sick people? To me it really depends on where your heart and mind is. Personally I found after 8 years of hospital-based nursing it was too emotional a job, mainly because you're always dealing with people who are under stress. It is quite difficult to separate yourself completely from that stress. The schedule for nursing, at least in the hospital, is also not really that desirable. I would think radiology/ultrasound would generally have more options for 'normal' schedules. The other downside to nursing vs ultrasound is that you are often with a single patient(s) for the whole day. Generally in radiology you're only having to deal with a patient for the duration of the test.