What are the requirements to become a Sonographer and how hard is it to become one, also, what is the day to day experience the job offers?

Hi,

Sonography is a competitive branch in medicine. I am sure you have enough info related to it by now. I will tell you about what you have after completing the certification course. In majority of the cases sonographers work at a hospital but they also get to work at small clinics or medical centers as well. Usually 9 to 5 job. Hours may vary dependping upon the emergencies. Sometimes you can be called during your off time or at night as well. So you gotta keep all this in mind I won't say its as easy as it sounds. Just like any other medical speciality it is also challenging. Reporting of results will be based on your judgement and the machine you will be using. Technology has some significant advancement still you will have to be careful to avoid errors.

About the salary you will be making 45k to 65k roughly. Its not bad I guess plus other benefits you can get along.

I must encourage you to go for it as it is a professional and clean field plus you will have other professionals around so help is always there and the environment is pretty healthy.

If you have further queries you can ask me.

All the best.
Khan, M.B.B.S

Hello,
Sonographers work in different environments so your day to day experience could vary from a regular office setting to a trauma center where a surgeon will decide whether or not to operate based upon what you see.

The courses you will need before enrolling are Human Anatomy, Human Physiology, College Algebra and Physics. Most programs are 6 semesters long. Sonography is divided into cardiac, medical and vascular. The cardiologist uses ultrasounds to determine how healthy a heart is, how well the valves are working and how strongly it pumps blood.

Medical ultrasounds are used to see how a fetus is developing, to detect gallbladder stones, to diagnose appendicitis or to find out whether a person involved in a car accident has bleeding in their abdomen. A medical sonographer has to be comfortable in emergency situations and clearly and quickly report his or her findings because a minute or two can be the difference between life and death for the patient.
The vascular ultrasonographer evaluates the body's circulatory system, identifies blockages and detects clots. You will use a wand type device to emit sound through a gel placed on a person's skin to see the flow of blood through veins and arteries in the abdomen, arms, legs, neck and/or brain (in infants and children) or within various body organs such as the liver or kidneys.

All 3 types of sonographers work in offices or hospitals so you could work 9 to 5 or 7 at night to 7 in the morning. You should check with your local community college and see if they can have you shadow an ultrasonographer at work.
I hope this is helpful.
Best of luck.
Julian Wyman M.D.

I am not real familiar with sonography. The best advice I can give to you is to shoot for the top of the heap. You should explore medicine or dentistry and if you want to settle for something else if you do not like these professions, then you can settle for something else. Never give up as a young person to go for everything. You can always settle for something else later on. As to what you will need, you will need a four year college degree probably with a heavy concentration in biology, chemistry and other sciences.

Hi Tiffany!

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