If you are curious about a sonographer's career or wants to become one, this article will answer to general question that you might ask yourself. Such as their job at work, their journey, the places where they can be found and other useful information.
The sonographer helps in the medical field by using their knownledge of the human body, ultrasound training and technical skills that they have learned during college and university.
They assist the doctors by creating images on different body parts using sound waves.There are different types of sonopgraher that are specialized in their main topic of the human's body parts. During an examination, each one of them proceed a scanning method on the region of the patient's body part that needs to be analyzed by the doctor. For a sample example, a pregnant woman needs an ultrasound to see the foetus growth or it gender. Also, when someone gets injured, depends of the doctor's needs, sonographers will proceed a scan on the target zone. It could be on the muscle of the patient; which is a musculoskeletal sonographer's role, the pancreas; whom the abdominal sonographer is specialized in, etc. Each specialist has a responsability for each patient that has different cases.
Sonographers receives patient that needs a scan on the area that needs to be analyzed. They give instruction on how the patient should position themselves and starts their ultrasound examination. Each sonographers has their own schedule, so one can be busier than the others. After an image created, they examine it and send it to the doctor who is taking care of the patient and so go on their day.
They usually are found in the hospital, but can also work in a private clinic.
To become a sonographer, everyone starts with their high school degree to be able to study at college. The related program to the career is called Ultrasound Medical. There is 6 semesters, which takes about 2 years of studies and after graduating from college, it is still possible for the student to get a bachelor degree in a Medical Biology program.
In Canada, sonographers will make an average annual salary of 71,847 CAD. It can also be an annual salary between $65,072 and $84,923 based on the working experience, the region and the hospital or clinic.
Sometimes, the students will take additional training through bachelor's education in a Medical Biology program. They will train their abilities in clinics.
Dangers in the ultrasound technician's environment are very low. The sound waves that are used to create an image on the patient's body parts does not cause any harm to them and the sonographer. The only danger for sonographers is that they might develop joints and back problem during work time.
The chances are mildly high for a sonographer to be replaced by robots. The AI technology could be more efficient than humans sonographers's skills, but what robots can not replace is trust among all patients. In the society, a good percentage of people do not trust AI technology, which could be a problem if sonographers were to be replaced since they have a quite important role in the medical field.
Sometimes, the reason that most sonographers retire is health problem, or they are getting too old. The average age of a retired sonographer is around 60 years old. Otherwise, some of them just quit earlier because of a disease, such as arthritis.
A sonographer's career leads to different paths. Misinformed people didn't know that sonographers could be experts on multiple parts of the body. Additionally, some of them are able to work with children and some of them don't. This job may look easy, but it is actually a very important part of some procedure in the medical field. Without sonographers, it would be quite hard to analyze a patient's disease, injury or pregnancy with strict precision.
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Accuracy: probably true
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