Can’t We All Just Get Along

by SonoguruApril 21, 2019April 21, 2019

I don’t know what it is about nurses that they have such animosity toward sonographers. Some might say that jealousy plays a role, or that it could be they feel superior to us. They may tend to think they make more money than us, but honestly the salary ranges are very close and could also range from state to state. But should this even matter? We both work in the same industry and hopefully have the same end goals, which is to take care of the patients. So why the animosity between nurses and Sonographers?

How come they recognize and celebrate nurses day for a week but we are lucky if we get a “thank you” during ultrasound MONTH in October. Half the time facilities, Dr’s even our own non -practicing sonography manager knows its ultrasound month.

I know nurses tend to think our job is easy and maybe this is where the title ” glorified button pushers” came from, but just as I don’t think nurse’s jobs are easy they shouldn’t assume ours is as well. In some facilities I have noticed nurse’s have way more help on the job then we do. For example they have unit clerks, medical assistants, and throw some students in there and whala! More time for cards and coffee. Sonographers do the necessary paper work, get their own patients or push the machine up to patient’s rooms, sometimes help their patients dress or undress and roll over, clean up the room after, get the study ready for the doctor to read all within a 45 minute time period and then of course when you go back to your desk and look, yup the next one is here and waiting and probably came15 minutes early, so if you call their name one minute past their appointment time there is a good chance you will get the evil eye followed by a comment like ” I thought you forgot about me.”

Now before anyone thinks I’m going all off on nurses let me make something clear, my mom was an RN nurse. She has since passed however when I was a young girl whenever she couldn’t get a babysitter I sometimes got to go to her night school nursing classes with her where I would sit next to her and to her amazement draw out and label the skeletal system. Later on as I got older and it was time to decide my future I will never forget the line my mom said to me in order to steer me clear of the nursing profession. “Don’t become a nurse, they are over worked and underpaid” she says. I think she secretly was hoping I would go in the MD direction but that was not happening as next to police officers and firefighters doctors have the highest divorce rate in the country.

So just as nurses have stressful jobs, so do we as sonographers. We too have to deal with our fair share of difficult, egotistic doctors who tend to yell at us, or tell us to call the patient back in to get more images, or hey can you go get me a coffee! Ok so maybe I threw the coffee bit in there to lighten the mood but still, we too have difficult doctors to answer to just as nurses do. At the end of the day we are all in this together and should be supporting each other, I mean how can we ” Love A Nurse” when they can’t show the love in return.

CategoriesBlog