Should You Be A Radiology Technician Or An Ultrasound Technician?

In principle these technicians are doing the same job. Both technicians work with equipment to perform tests that doctors have ordered that will provide the doctor with images that can result in the correct diagnosis of a patient. Both technicians also receive basically the same educational backgrounds at the colleges they attend.

Radiology Technician

The radiology technician performs tests that provide images of internal organs using radiation to create the image. These technicians are often referred to as radiographers in the medical community.

They work very closely with the doctors and with the radiologist in their department. They are highly skilled, and they apply all of their knowledge to obtain the clearest image they can for the doctor. The technician knows that the images they get can be the one thing that causes a patient to receive the proper treatment, and will possibly prolong a life. They are very careful about their jobs.

With some additional training these professionals can receive certificates allowing them to operate CT equipment, MRI equipment, fluoroscopy equipment, and other equipment that provides images of internal organs, and the bone structure of a patient.

These professionals can expect to earn a median salary of around $52,210 per year. This is a good salary for the amount of time they invest in their education.

They are required to have at least 24 hours of continuing education courses every two years when they renew their license.

Ultrasound Technician

People who work in the medical community call ultrasound technicians diagnostic medical sonographers a lot of the time. This is an adequate description of the jobs they perform. The equipment that these technicians operate makes use of sound waves to create visual images of the internal organs of a patient. These sound waves can create images of all manners of internal organs and tissues.

A doctor writes the orders for an ultrasound technician to perform an ultrasound on some portion of a person's body. Prenatal ultrasounds are very popular because they give the OB/GYN a chance to see how the baby is growing, and to see how much amniotic fluid the mother has surrounding the baby, and later on they can see if the baby is getting in the correct position for birthing. Of course they can also see the fact that there are multiples inside the mother, and they can usually see the sex of the child after the mother reaches a certain stage of her pregnancy.

The ultrasound tech can expect a salary of around $62,000 per year. They have a little more learning to do than the radiology tech does.
The ultrasound tech will need to do thirty hours of continuing education every three years to renew their license.