Sonographers find work in hospitals, free-standing imaging centers, medical clinics, private physicians’s offices, mobile ultrasound services, or even for themselves as self-employed Sonographers in any of the above situations. But as a new sonographer you will likely find employment in one of the first two options so that is where I will concentrate and explore the pros and cons of each.

 

Let’s look first at the hospital setting. In many hospitals, you will be required to take call. Call is how after-hours, weekend, and holiday hours are often filled. When on call you need to be able to respond to any request for an ultrasound within a reasonable amount of time. This can severely limit what activities you can participate in during that time. Almost all departments rotate call between all available Sonographers. How much call you take is dependent upon how many Sonographers there are to cover the load, this will also determine how many holidays you are required to work in any given year. The call is almost always paid out at time-and-a-half or double-time for a minimum of two to four hours for each callback. It can become quite a lucrative way to increase your total income. On the other hand, if you are in a hospital with very busy Emergency and Labor and Delivery departments, you may find yourself crawling out of bed multiple times a night. You may feel that no amount of money is worth the amount of sleep you are missing. Therefore, this may either be placed on the pro or con list depending which is more important to you, money or sleep. Almost all free-standing imaging centers and medical clinics have set open hours that fully staff personnel, so call is not necessary.

 

Some hospitals, especially those in large urban areas, staff twenty-four hours seven days a week, making call unnecessary or at least only necessary as a backup. These types of shifts may provide some flexibility for the person who does not want to work day shifts. Some imaging centers and hospitals also hire some part-time and PRN (or as needed) positions.

 

Urban hospitals and imaging centers usually have multiple Sonographers and interpreting physicians working during the busiest hours. That may not be the case may some rural facilities. Having others around to help with a difficult scan, sound ideas off of, and learn from is always a plus.

Hospital work is often a bit more physical than non-hospital work. Patients are often sicker, may need more help in getting onto and off of the ultrasound exam table, and may have difficulty in moving into the best scanning positions. You may be required to move equipment to the nursing floor or ICU to perform the exam in a portable situation, often having to contort your body into uncomfortable positions in order to work around other medical equipment. You may be required to lift patients from wheelchairs. Certainly not all patients in hospitals are this debilitated, nor are all patients encountered in an out-patient setting “walkie-talkies.” But, there are definitely some settings in which you are more likely to encounter a younger more mobile population, in an obstetrical clinic for instance. But even in these settings it is important to remember that there may always be the possibility of difficult to move patients.

Schedules vary from eight to twelve-hour shifts in both hospitals and imaging centers. Typically eight-hour shifts work five days a week, ten-hour shifts work four days a week, and twelve-hour shifts work three days. The advantage of the twelve-hour shift is more days off, but it is important to take into consideration the physical and mental exhaustion factors before agreeing to work thru twelve hours straight.

 

The patient load is also something to consider. Technologists report anywhere from eight to twenty patients in a typical day. No matter how many hours you are there, twenty patients is an extremely difficult day, even for an experienced Sonographer. In an eight-hour day, ten patients would be ideal, although more and more facilities are expecting twelve to fourteen per Sonographer. Regardless of how many hours you work on any particular day, anything over fifteen patients is mentally exhausting. So in my mind, more hours just equates to less productivity and greater potential for mistakes. Many workplaces do not agree with me, however, because longer shifts mean less personnel to complete the required number of exams. In these days when every entity is watching their bottom line, that may be the only determining factor taken into consideration for staffing.