For a career riding the waves, prospective diagnostic medical sonographers should abandon their surfboards and check out a post-secondary education program. Sonography is the field of listening to sound waves from the human body and interpreting them to detect distress, disease or injury. While the sonography field has no set educational degree requirements, applicants should expect to spend between six months to six years in school studying for their field, with two years the most common time investment.
Degrees
A range of educational opportunities are available in diagnostic medical sonography. The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Programs, which monitors the sonography field, accredits 185 programs across the country as of February 2011. These include 13 short-term diplomas and 84 certificates, 94 two-year associate degrees, 26 bachelor's degrees and one master's program, the University of Missouri-Columbia. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the two-year associate degree program is the most common.
College Prep
Getting into a diagnostic medical sonography college program varies both per school and per type of degree. Most associate degree programs require a high school diploma or GED; all bachelor's programs do. Some schools require SAT or ACT scores, a letter of intent, recommendations and a work/volunteer history. Requirements are usually more relaxed for the certificate and diploma programs, which are usually open to students at any educational level.
Coursework
College programs in sonography may differ in the schedule of their classes, but they all prepare students for work in the field. On rosters such as Delta College's, students receive education in abdominal sonography, ultrasound physics and instrumentation, patient care and management, small parts sonography, introduction to neurologic and vascular sonography, occupational wellness, introduction to ultrasound scanning, ultrasound physics and instrumentation, human anatomy and physiology, medical terminology and general physics. Programs at or above the associate degree level almost always also require a few general education courses such as interpersonal communication, technical communication, principles of sociology and American government.
Tracks
Prospective sonographers may have the opportunity, depending on school, to select a specific track to study. In those cases, students in programs such as the cardiovascular track at Mercy College of Health Sciences spend time in cardiovascular labs and conduct cardiovascular clinics and rotations.
Tags: associate degree, diagnostic medical, diagnostic medical sonography, medical sonography, most common, physics instrumentation, two-year associate
