The meat and potatoes of any Sonography program is the time spent in clinical. A program without clinical is not a Sonography program. Usually, you will be spending between twenty-four and thirty-two hours a week there. Some programs in which you do all of your clinical rotation after didactic work is completed may have you spending forty hours a week. You will be interacting with experienced Sonographers (and maybe inexperienced ones), interpreting physicians, referring physicians, patients, and family members on a daily basis. What you learn here is probably the most important aspect of your education. Here is where you will pick up good habits and bad. You will encounter all types of personalities. You will put into practice all of the useful information that you glean from those around you. You will be frustrated beyond belief at some points, and you will fly so high at others you will not be able to see the ground. You will have major disappointments and major breakthroughs. You will make mistakes. Every Sonographer has been there, and been there over and over again. Remember that fact on your worst days and your best.

Clinical sites vary immensely in terms of busyness. Very busy places usually provide the opportunity to see much more pathology, but students may not get as much hands on scanning time as they would like. Slower sites provide more scan time and better one-on-one learning occasions. The opportunity to rotate between two or more sites with varying degrees of busyness can be very worthwhile.