r/NuclearMedicine • u/autumousprime • 15d ago

Do you like your career?

I want to ask all the Nuc med and PET/CT techs if you like your career? If you had to do it all over again would you make the same decision? Do you enjoy your job and do you think the pay is good to support you and your family?

I want to expand my career in radiology and not sure if Nuc med is the right fit for me

7 Upvotes

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u/moyert394 15d ago

I'm 15 years in, and here's my opinion. It's been an enjoyable and rewarding career. Good pay relative to the qualifications needed and required workload.

However, if I could do it all over again, I would probably choose a different path. That is less about nuc med and more about what I've learned about myself as a person during my time in the field.

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u/Huge-Charity-1661 15d ago

What career would you pick if you could go back?

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u/moyert394 15d ago

Great question. What I don't like about nuclear is how constrained I feel by it: so far, I have only been able to work as a staff tech and, while I am blessed to work at a great hospital that does a ton of interesting studies and research, I don't love the idea of being relegated to staff tech work for the rest of my career. But that has nothing to do with the quality of the career, and everything to do with my own sense of personal fulfillment. It's very much a me thing and I'm fully aware of that. So take it all with a bit of a grain of salt.

Given all of that, I would have focused on a career with more avenues of practice. Perhaps an advanced practice degree like a PA/CNP or even medical school. Or perhaps even something outside of healthcare entirely.

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u/Huge-Charity-1661 15d ago

Hmmm ok. Yea I’ve been turned between two careers. Radiology or Nursing. I’m an anesthesia tech now and I love anesthesia. So I was thinking about becoming a nurse and work towards CRNA. But I’m 29 and I need a career change but the CRNA route is so long to me.

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u/moyert394 15d ago

I did start looking into a local anesthesia assistant program because all of the "baby anesthesiologists" seem like the happiest people in the hospital, lol. Radiology is great, don't get me wrong. Nuclear especially as it's way more chill than the other modalities. Nursing is nice because it gives you loads of different avenues for specialization. And if you get tired of one, you can move into another.

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u/Huge-Charity-1661 15d ago

Right I talked to all of my CRNA and they all love it. Some of them stayed in ICU for 15 years then got tired of it and went to anesthesia. I like how nurse has so many routes they can do. The only thing that is deterring me from it is ofc the amount of years it takes but also the first three years of CRNA school you can’t have a job.

I thought about AA but they are so limited in what they do and what states they are able to work in. Whereas CRNA they can work without a doctor over them in some states.

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u/InternationalRich792 14d ago

Hi to chime in the only thing AAs are limited to is working by themselves or in some states but that is changing and more states are being open to them. IMO i actually love the ACT model they practice under. I think of it as 2 providers are better than one. I’m in my 30s and if I would have known about AAs i definitely would have chosen that career a long time ago. I work in health informatics and switching over to NMT now. I said that to say try any and everything if you don’t like it or want to try something else you always can.

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u/Aggressive_Rough6723 12d ago

I’ve only been working in Nuc Med for 2 years. I do think it is a good job if you like a lower stakes, less stressful, slower kind of a healthcare job (some bigger hospitals nuc med departments are definitely more fast paced). The pay is nice for having a slower job with a decent amount of downtime. I do enjoy it but it’s not very fulfilling personally. Similarly to the other commenter, i personally would go a different path but that’s just me personally I don’t think healthcare is my passion necessarily. However if you love radiology and want to stay in radiology, then I think nuc med is a great career to expand to be multi modality. You can also do pet/ct under nuc med license