any radiologic techs/ RNs?

[thealmightyme]

I was a student trying to make this decision 10 years ago. Then life made it for me. I was injured at work and had to have a surgery to fix the problem. I was then told I could not be a nurse because I couldn't lift patients too much. So I went into radiology. After being on radiology for several years I've come to realize I would have hated being a nurse. If you work on the floors you are with the same patients for 12 hours, and if they are nasty your whole day can go bad. With radiology you have patients for 10 mins to an hour depending on the exam. I love what I do. As a RT new hire I started at 50K a year. When I moved to mammo, I made 89K per year. I now an in apps where I teach techs how to use our equipment once a facility has purchased it. I get to travel the world and meet many different technologists. MRI US CT IR and Mammography pay better then general radiology.

I would say apply for the RN program and see if you get in, do the other pre requs for rad and see which one you can get into. Generally RN does make more money, but RT is just as specialized, just in a different way. There are other avenues in radiology also. There is management, working for a equipment manufacturer and such. We will always be techs at heart, but techs are what we like to be. There is also nuclear medicine too which usually pays as much to more than an average nurse gets. Also there is a new program which is a radiology physician assistant, where you do the exams and preliminary readings and work with the Dr.'s closely.

[twinmomstl]

I would highly recommend nursing BUT choose a specialty! I think many of the nurses that hate it just haven't found the right job. Do I have bad days? Occationally but not often. I wouldn't change my job for anything I love being a NICU nurse

[Pikemommy]

RT can cross train into MRI and CT, that's it for advancement. Ultrasound and Nuclear Medicine are separate education and you can't sit for their board exams without an additional degree, you can't cross train into them and get registered/be employable. RN's have much more earning potential than an RT.