5 Ways to Boost Your Ultrasound Technician Career

Young male technician working with an ultrasound machine. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

It’s important to have a successful career as an ultrasound technician. Many will measure your success by how much you are being paid. If you want to be a high paid ultrasound technician, you will have to master a lot of the key skills of an ultrasound technician. Boosting your career may be easier than you think – and there are 5 ways to help you.

1. Work on Your Education

For the most part, an ultrasound technician has to have at least an associate degree. This is not to say that you cannot have a higher level of education. At some point, you will reach a point in your career where an associate degree is not enough. If you go back to school in order to get a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree, you will learn more about sonography and human anatomy. This allows you to work with new and different doctors. It also allows you to tap into the higher end of the ultrasound technician salary range. You can give a boost to your career by choosing the right ultrasound technician program.

2. Be Detail Oriented

One of the most important skills of an ultrasound technician is being detail oriented. Focus on your tasks at hand because you have to be able to follow directions. If you cannot do this, it will be hard to get into the bigger and better health care facilities. Various workshops and seminars can be attended to help you become more detail oriented. As you start to pay attention to subtle cues, you can provide more insight into the images that you are capturing with the sonography equipment.

3. Improve Your Availability

Health care facilities need ultrasound technicians all hours of the day and night. If you can only work a very small window of hours, it will be hard to become a high paid ultrasound technician. Ensure that you can pull nights and weekends as needed. Employers want to see that you are a team player. While it may not be required of you all the time, it’s good to let an employer know that you are there when they need you.

4. Focus on Continuing Education Credits

Once you have your certification from the state, you will need to maintain your education with continuing education credits. The more you get, the better it can help with your career. Focus on which courses you are taking to ensure you are headed in the right direction as it pertains directly to your career. If you’re not sure which courses to take, talk to your employer.

5. Master Your Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills, when it pertains to the key skills of an ultrasound technician, all comes down to bedside manner. How well do you interact with patients? There are going to be patients who are highly stressed and that means you have to be patient with them. If you master your interpersonal skills, more doctors will want to work with you because of how well you work with their patients.

The ultrasound technician salary range can vary significantly. The bottom 10 percent makes about $44,990 a year while the top 10 percent makes around $91,070. This is a large range and you want to be closer to the 90th percentile than anywhere else in the range. This means that you have to master the key skills of an ultrasound technician in one way or another.

Erik Johnson is an active blogger and advisor, specializing in sharing informative stuffs about careers and education. With his years of experience, he shares his valuable knowledge about choosing one of the most rewarding careers as an ultrasound technician.