unlvdmd said:
I guess....actually RT sucks as a career field- the politics of RT blow big time and have for several years- hence the desire for a career change. The field is losing people left and right- to nursing, to medicine, to dentistry, to radiology, to jobs outside the medical field- because of a very nasty lack of respect amongst therapists over credentials. Basically imagine if the DMD's didn't respect DDS's and you'd have some idea of what is going on.
Echocardiography has it's interesting moments but you spend a lot of time looking at the same old crap (Oh look! A mitral valve!), but then again for $32-35 an hour (which is my going rate for contract work, I'd make less if I were on staff at the hospital and I wouldn't have the ability to tell the MD's "Screw it, I don't feel like working today" which would get you fired most places, but since the cardiologists either wait for the hospital to have an appointment-average wait time is about 10 days- or wait for me to come to their office and use their U/S machine to do the study they don't get too pissy about me setting my own schedule), I'll stare at damn near anything. Plus it's kind of nice being able to tell a doc, "Sorry but you'll have to wait until tomorrow- I am going fishing/hunting/etc today" and have them go "OK, let me know when you're available".
I could do it full time- and the docs would keep me busy- and clear about $70K a year but I don't want to do it full time. But the major drawback to echo is that you really don't get to see outcomes on your patients....it lacks the feedback I want out of a career. Yeah, the money's nice, but I don't see myself making much of a difference- I just help provide the diagnosis.....I guess it's a weird way to look at things but oh well, that's how I feel....
Emergency medical services is another job that's just overrated- less than 10% of what we do is the lights and sirens stuff you see on TV. It's more akin to being a social worker most of the time than anything involving critical care. But when it gets bad, it gets real bad. It nearly drove me to madness- you see your friends die in front of you and see how much you want to continue doing EMS for less than what I would make for working at a Best Buy. It's nearly impossible to have a normal family life being an EMT, most people I know who are in it work two jobs just to make ends meet.
Sorry for rambling....
