Although it isn’t an easy career path, specializing in neurosonography is an excellent choice for sonography students who are fascinated by the human brain and want to help people live better lives. There are many job options for medical professionals who specialize in neurosonography and many different locations where you can find employment. You may work with any number of different patient populations and alongside all sorts of talented medical professionals. So what is this diagnostic medical sonography job all about?
Specializing in neurosonography means that you are a diagnostic medical sonographer or sonography technician who works specifically with the nervous system, which includes the brain and other parts of the body. You may also specialize in neonatal neurosonography, in which case you would work in the field of studying and diagnosing nervous system and neurological disorders that occur in infants, typically those who have been born premature. It is a very specific field of sonography that is vital to the medical community.
Neurosonographers are responsible for operating transducers in order to perform sonograms on their patients, just like all other sonographers are. What makes neurosonographers different, however, is the fact that they use specialized beam shapes and frequencies that are quite unlike the ones used by abdominal and obstetric sonographers.
You will need at least a two-year degree to enter this field, if not a four-year degree, and you must pass a certification or licensing exam. As a neurosonographer, you can expect to work in a hospital, clinic or private physician’s office, although there may be other types of environments where you might find employment as well. A great deal of your work will likely take place in dark rooms where the diagnostic imaging machines are located, but you may also perform patient procedures right at their bedside in some cases. You will need to be ready to work long hours on your feet and deal with stressful work situations, particularly with chronically ill patients. You may also be required to work nights and weekends.
If this sounds like a good career for you, there are many accredited school programs where you can get started.