Career Essay Sample: Nuclear Medicine Technologist

I am currently attending York College of Pennsylvania for Nuclear Medicine Technology. It is my sophomore year right now, and I plan to continue my studies and go onto clinical rotations during my senior year. Unfortunately, the school that has previously provided clinicals for Nuclear Medicine students, the one that I actually transferred from, is deciding to go on a “hiatus” with their program. For that reason, the future of Nuclear Medicine clinicals is a little foggy and York College is still working with other colleges to find out exactly what we are going to do to complete our program. Hopefully by my senior year everything is running smoothly and I am able to finish my clinicals and go on to pass the certification exam provided by the Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board. This will allow me to be a Certified Nuclear Medicine Technologist!

As far as the state of my occupation goes, I am open to a lot of things! I can see myself sticking around Pennsylvania and working somewhere like Lancaster General Hospital or WellSpan Health in York. There are also good things said about Hershey Medical Center so that would be an enjoyable place to work. I do, however, have a little desire to live somewhere like North Carolina or a coastal state like that. For right now, though, I am mostly focused on local hospitals. I did have an interest in working in private practice because I thought that it would be less stressful than in a hospital, but I think it is a lot harder to find those jobs than hospital jobs. I also recall hearing the speaker talk about how private practice in nuclear medicine was dying. I might not have a choice in the matter, but I would prefer to not work at a big hospital in a large city such as Philadelphia. I enjoy smaller hospitals in less busy environments. 

Nuclear Medicine Technologists prepare and administer radiopharmaceuticals to patients for their nuclear medicine scan, which are used to detect various illnesses in the body such as cancer. One of my favorite parts about this career is the interaction with the patients. NMTs communicate with the patient and talk to them about the procedure, which is something I would like to do. The technologist provides the images that the physician will use to diagnose the patient. While imaging tests are probably the main thing I would be doing, the speaker also brought up areas such as research, which might involve developing ways to treat ailments with radiation.  

Something interesting that I learned about promotions is that they are more easily obtained with a Bachelor’s degree than with just an associate. This is honestly music to my ears because I was previously going for an associate’s but switched this year. Some other good news for me is that technologists in more rural hospitals may see more promotions because of the lack of competition. Promotions lead to positions such as supervisor, chief technologist and department administrator. These positions obviously come with a higher pay. As I have mentioned before, however, I do not necessarily see myself taking too much of a leadership role. I know that it would pay more, but I do not want the extra stress that comes with those jobs and telling people what to do. Just like many other professions in the health field, there is also the opportunity to become an instructor. It is possible to get a Master of Science in Nuclear Medicine, but I do not if it has much more of an advantage over just a bachelors. Most techs only hold bachelors so I do not really see the point in spending more money for the degree if it doesn’t come with benefits.  There are a few more certifications exams if you would like to become more specialized in certain areas. A few of these include PET Certification, CT Certification, and NCT (Nuclear Cardiography Technologist) Certification. I could definitely see myself pursuing some of these extra qualifications. You learn very fascinating things and become more well rounded at your job, and it would also allow me to switch to different things so I can spice things up now and then. In this class we have talked a couple times about how nice it is switching in between things so you don’t get bored just doing the same thing over and over again.