Following My Dreams Did you know that you only need an associate’s degree to be a sonographer? I have always been interested in the medical field. It involves helping others, and that has always been a passion of mine. Sonography has many different specialties. Some different areas are diagnostic cardiovascular, abdominal (AB), obstetric (OB), breast (BR), musculoskeletal (MSK) and neurosonograpy. Personally, I am more interested in diagnostic cardiovascular and obstetric sonography. Diagnostic cardiovascular sonography specializes in diseases and disorders within the heart and vascular system. Obstetric sonography specializes in organs of the female reproductive system. I prefer diagnostic cardiovascular sonography because the heart interests…show more content… To begin, there are some educational requirements that need to be met. For example, the Occupational Handbook shares that you need at least an associate’s degree. Some of the courses you need to take to get this degree include anatomy, medical terminology, and applied sciences. You will be working on these classes in a classroom setting, but you also have to do clinicals outside of the classroom. Clinicals are where you work hands on under experienced technologists (OCO). Next, training is available at many different schools in Kansas. For example, ultrasoundtechniciancenter.org tells us that you can receive training at community colleges, technical colleges and universities. One community college that offers this program is Cowley County Community College. Some universities that offer this program are Friends University, Kansas University, Wichita State University, and Newman University. Wichita Area Technical College does not currently have this program, but will have it this next enrollment year (Parmley). In addition, the length and cost of the training is an important consideration. To illustrate, collegecalc.com shares that for one year in the sonography program it will cost approximately $19,000. For a two year, associate’s degree, it will cost around $38,000. If you would like to go for your four year bachelor’s degree, it will cost you nearly $124,000
