Victoria Levesque

Interview on an Ultrasound technician

My chosen career pathway is to be an ultrasound technician. The person I interviewed
was an ultrasound technician named Ria Poblete. Ria works in general ultrasound at
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. I got a lot of helpful information from Ria, I even
got to do a job shadow with her on Tuesday February 24th. In addition to the information that I
got from RIA, I also gained information from O*Net. With both the help form O*Net and Ria, I
really want to get into ultrasound.
Some of the information that I acquired about ultrasound is from a very helpful website
called O*Net online. This website gives you information on any career that you want. It gives
you information on the tasks that you do, the tools that you used in the job. It can even give you
how much you be paid an hour to the annual salary. It also gives you how job positions that are
open in the job that you are looking into. It is a very helpful website even when you are on the
fence about something you want to do.
I also got a lot of information from the person that I interviewed. She was very helpful in
letting me know the things that it takes to be and become an ultrasound technician or what they
call it in the field a sonographer. She also let me know the hours of her day and if she worked
on holidays. Ria told me about what you have to be like personality wise when you are on the
job. She also let me know what kind of places had an ultrasound department.
What is involved in the work?
There are many things that are involved in ultrasound. Most of them are tools and
technologies that I would be using. The tools I would be using would be: blood pressure cuff

kits, immobilization and positioning devices, ultrasound monitors, ultrasound video equipment,
high frequency transducers, transducers A-mode ultrasound machines, M-mode ultrasound
machines, pulsed wave Doppler ultrasound units, and two- dimensional Doppler ultrasound
equipment. Some of the technology I would also be using are: data base user interface and query
software, electronic mail software, medical software, spreadsheet software, and word processing
software. Know there are some different tasks that have to go down while on the job. You have
to watch the screen during the scan to make sure that the picture in produced properly for
diagnostic purposes, while you are making adjustments to the equipment. You also have to
watch and take care of the patient during the test to ensure their safety and that they are
comfortable. You need to give a sonogram and oral or written summary of what you find during
the test to the physician so the give a medical diagnosis. The next task is that you have to pick
the appropriate equipment settings to use and adjust the patient so you can get a perfect picture.
You need to operate the ultrasound equipment and get and record the images of motion, shape,
and composition of blood, organs, tissues, or bodily masses. You need to decide what images to
use and look for differences the healthy and not healthy areas. You also need to prepare the
patient for the exam by explaining to them what it is and bring them to the ultrasound table to
apply the special gel and putting the patient in correct position. You to pick whether the scope
for the exam should be extended, based on what you find. You have to get the correct patient
history, including previous tests, and information from physical exams. Lastly you have to keep
the patients record up to dare with the sonography and the interpretations of them. You also have
to make sure that you act profession all and be a good team player, so if one of your co-workers
makes a mistake you accept that and try to fix it.
The Place of work?

There are many things that you can do in ultrasound. Some of the jobs in it are: cardiac
sonography, cardiac/vascular sonography, diagnostic medical sonography, medical sonography,
register diagnostic sonography, staff sonography, an ultrasound technician, and an ultrasound
technologist. There are many places where you can participate in the job or ultrasound some of
them are hospitals, fertility clinics, and private practices.
Working conditions
I had asked Ria what she like and disliked about her job and she said what she liked the
most about her job was actually doing general ultrasound itself. She also said she enjoyed
working well with the people in the department. The part the she disliked about the job was that
it did get stressful at times. She also told me about the hours where she worked. She said the
hours were regular 5-8 hours, most of the time it would depend on a persons schedule though.
The hours also depended on is the person worked another job. She gave me an example that
some people work at one hospital during the week and then come work at Mass. General on the
weekend. She also mention that there were separate people who are scheduled to work night.
There would be one person who would be on call, and another person who worked from 8 pm- 6
am. There is also a separate group that worked on weekend that differed from the group that
worked during the week. For holidays they would split the department into two groups. These
two groups will rotate between major and minor holidays. For example group one will work
Thanksgiving and then group two will work Christmas one year and then the next year they
would switch so group two will work Thanksgiving and group one Christmas.
The size of the occupation

The ultrasound industry is pretty big between it being in clinics, private practices, and
hospitals. There are about 35,300 job opening in the field that are expected to be open in these
different places of work. There also a large number of people who work in this field the number
is amazing. The amount of employees is 59,000.
The training to enter the field
I had asked Ria about the preferred degree that is need to get a job in the field she said
that there wasnt really a preferred degree, she said you would be hired as long as you had really
good training under your belt. She also told me that there wasnt anything else that I need to do
besides getting my education and training to help me get my first job in the field. What I should
also do while I am in school to prepare for a job after graduation is to get registered, which a test
is called a registry to be able to perform in the field.
Career Leader
Ria also explained that I would also need to have my clinical rotations besides having
my college degree. I also asked her about having any other type of work experience that I
needed and she told me that I really didnt need any. As I mentioned earlier there are different
areas where I could move into in the ultrasound program, and these are: cardiac sonography,
cardiac/vascular sonography, diagnostic medical sonography, medical sonography, register
diagnostic sonography, staff sonography, an ultrasound technician, and an ultrasound
technologist.
Earnings and Future Prospects
The normal sonographer makes $31.93 an hour and $66,410 annually. This is a lot of
money to earn. Talking to RIA I sat there wondering if there was a reasonable chance that I

would find a job in my desired career. So I asked and she told me that there was defiantly a
reasonable chance for me to find a job in ultrasound.
Transferrable Skills
There are many skills that I need to be in ultrasound. Some of the skills that I need are:
active learning, reading comprehension, social perceptiveness, speaking, critical thinking,
monitoring, active listening, time management, coordination, and science. Along with this I also
need certain types if abilities. These abilities are: oral comprehension, near vision, oral
expression, problem sensitivity, written comprehension, written expression, speech clarity, armhand steadiness, control precision, and inductive reasoning. I would also be participating in
many activities like: assisting and caring for others, getting information, updating and using
relevant knowledge, documenting/ recording information, communication with supervisors,
peers or subordinates, interacting with computers, performing for of working directly with the
public, establishing and maintain interpersonal relationships, interpreting the meaning of
information for others, and evaluating information to determine compliance with standard. Selfcontrol in this job is very important. You need to be able to maintain composure, keep your
emotions in check, control your anger, and avoid aggressive behavior even if you are in a very
difficult situation. The relational people skills that you need to have is to be able to handle
stressful patients, while being able to do the job and talk to the patients. You also need very
good- problem solving skills. Time management is also important for the job because you need
to be able to get a patient in on time and get them out when they are supposed to get out. Lastly
the classed that are important for me to take for this job are: customer and personal service,
English language, physics, medicine and dentistry, clerical, computers and electronics,
psychology, and education and training.

I learned many things from doing this interview assignment. I was able to get how much
money I might be making hourly and yearly. I was also able to see if I would have to work
irregular or regular hour, which I would have to work regular. I also learned that not everyone
works the holidays. From what I see there is a lot of things that need to be done on an
educational point and also on the job side. I did enjoy learning about what Ria liked about what
she did with her job.