Good Morning my fellow button pushers! I just posted this answer on my FB page, and I thought it was worth putting here as well. So why did I choose to call myself a “button pusher”? Well, as most people in the Health Care industry know, there was a study published a round 2018 that stated Sonography was one of THE LEAST STRESSFUL JOBS in America. Immediately, my sono-self was offended; how dare an outsider apply metrics to my career and passion, and somehow come up with the conclusion that ultrasound is “stress-free”. The I looked at the assessment in a different light. Of course! Ultrasound looks “stress-free” and dare I say “easy” to the uneducated. Of course, ultrasound looks easy when you watch a sonographer work their magic. Looks aren’t everything, and DO NOT tell the entire story. Sonography is a science, technology, and an aesthetic art. The “Good” make the job look easy, and the “Amazing” make the job look effortless. Here are the points that the study mentioned earlier missed:
1. The ultrasound machine is a unit, a box, a tool.
2. “The Machine” IS the SONOGRAPHER
3. “The Computer”, the most important part, IS the Sonographer’s BRAIN.
4. “The Motor” IS the Sonographer’s BODY. Especially the upper body.
Sonographers drive their ultrasound machine to create aesthetically pleasing and highly diagnostic images. The Sonographer analyzes and documents what he/she sees. Currently, there is no computer on Earth that can keep up with the number of minute movements, computations, calculations, analyses, et cetera that occur in the Sonographer’s brain during an exam. Oh, and don’t forget that the Son0grapher also has to carry on a conversation with the patient, and answer any questions to the best of his/her ability.I will leave you to ponder this . . .
