Career Name: Echocardiography
ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY
Training in echocardiography includes equipping learners with knowledge and skills on how to produce ultrasound images of the heart.
Educational Requirements
• An associate’s degree in any health-related field.
• Completion of medical coursework
Certification/Licensure
• Students are expected to pass an examination related to their preferred field and practice and consequently achieving the recognition of passing that exam by a private body managed by the ARDMS and CCI. The initials stand for The American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (ARDMS) and Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI).
• ARDMS offers the certified sonographer credentials in adult, pediatric, and fetal echocardiography. The sonographer is referred to as a Registered Diagnostic Cardiac Sonographer (RDCS).
• CCI offers Registered Cardiac Sonographer (RCS) and Registered Congenital Cardiac Sonographer (RCCS) Credentials.
Continuing Education Requirement
• Students are required to complete a one to two-year training program in a university or college of choice.
• Students are also expected to complete 60 hours of course work.
Advancement Potential Within the Career
• A certified echocardiography technician is able to use ultrasound in detecting threatening heart conditions.
Areas of specialties within the career
• Surface Echo
• Stress Echo
• Transesophageal Echo
• Intraoperative Echo
Salary
• As of 2016, the average salary of an echocardiographic technician was 69, 612 US Dollars. The salary is expected to rise as a result of the aging population which poses the need for echocardiography due to increased prevalence for heart diseases.
• Salaries are however based on the employer, work experience, and the geographical area.
Work Environment for an Echocardiographer
• An echocardiographer may find himself or herself working in various working environments depending on the job assignment. Most of them work in hospitals, clinics, medical research labs, and homes of the patients. They may also find themselves working in medical camps, military camps, outpatient centers, in planes, in education institutions such as boarding schools, in dialysis centers, and in maternity facilities. Depending on the job, an echocardiographer may find himself or herself working in different places. Most of them work in places like hospitals, clinics, medical research labs, and patients’ homes. They may also work in medical camps, military camps, outpatient centers, airplanes, schools like boarding schools, dialysis centers, and maternity facilities.
Job responsibilities
• Producing images of the patient’s heart muscle.
• Producing images of the heart functioning.
• Operating the ultrasound equipment.
• Attaching electrodes to the heart of the patient ant the ultrasound equipment.
• Making records of the cardiac data including measurement.
• Providing protection and Helpance to the patient.
Work Hazards and Physical Demands
• Radiation Exposure
• Cavitation which involves formation of microbubbles produced from dissolved gases in tissues as a result of the radiation which may further result to capillary rupture.
• Musculoskeletal Discomfort and injury as a result of long standing and strenuous postures while scanning.
Is there travel involved?
• Travel is involved in movements from home to home, hospital to home, hospital to plane, field to hospital.
What I like about the job
• Being able to detect a heart condition early enough and have it treated before situations get worse hence saving lives, cost of healthcare, and psychological distress.
What I do not like about the job
• I fear exposure to health risks discussed earlier but I am willing to take precautionary measures
Professional Websites
• https://www.cci-online.org/
• https://www.ardms.org/Pages/default.aspx
Personal Summary
• This career fits matches my desire to save lives through preventive measures whereby in this career, I get to detect problems early enough. I feel fulfilled when I help other people and their recovery gives me joy and this motivates me more in all my works.
Institutions offering Echocardiography in my state.
• Brightwood College
• ATI College
• California College-San Diego
• Casa Loma College
• Central California School
• Charles Drew University of Medicine and Sciences
My educational Path
• This is an expansion of my career in my quest to find fulfilment in my healthcare calling. Excelling in this career will give me the exposure to a variety of heart condition and I will be aware of how to prevent them through further research. By studying Echocardiography, I believe I will be get to start a program on lifestyle choices that prevent heart conditions which will save lives.
