me as well

Right now, I find myself in a rare and fortuate situation...an MT making excellent hourly pay.  I work for a good hospital, and I like it.

But I can see the writing on the wall.  I see where this industry is going, and my manager and the director have to fight for us.  They are both near retirement, and when that happens, the you-know-what is going to hit the fan.  I've been through this before with a prior job.  Everything was fine until the manager retired, then all MTs were let go and everything was outsourced to MQ...which ended up being done in India.

Anyway, I figure I've got a couple-three years or so to get retrained so that I can make the leap when D-day arrives.  I have been doing this for too long and I'm too good to work for 3 cpl editing without benefits.  I have excellent benefits, way above the average number of paid days off per year, and I'm just O so slightly attached to my pension, ya know?!

So, I have been racking my brain to figure out what else to do.  I want to stay in the medical field.  I like being in a high-demand, recession-proof field, in a position that cannot be outsourced.  I've been watching the jobs boards at my hospital and those of other hospitals in my area to see what's available and what's difficult to fill.

In my area, the demand for rad techs seems to be met.  I rarely see openings for those, and the ones I do see are snatched up pretty quickly.  Pay is like $18 per hour.  But what caught my eye was ultrasound tech.  At least in my area, there is a critical shortage of them.  I did some research, and I found out that one goes to rad school first then continues on with additional ultrasonography courses.  They make BANK--much more than a straight rad tech.  Here, they start at $29 per hour and go up to $44...with as much OT and on-call pay as one can take.  Another option would be MRI tech.  They make more than rad techs, but there doesn't seem to be quite the desperation/shortage for them as for ultrasound techs. 

I found out there are ultrasound specializations.  It's not all just vaginal or abdominal ultrasounds for pregnant women.  There is a cardiac specialization (what I am most interested in) and a vascular specialization as well.

Let's stay in touch and share what we know.

• MT becoming RAD TECH - hanging on a little longer
  • You could learn OTJ for 6 months as a rad tech - I remember when
  • me as well - me2
    • Starting over (sm) - hanging on a little longer
      • I am considering CART or closed captioning.. - dj
      • I just turned 40. nm - me2
    • another thing... - me2

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