My time in Ultrasound

Upon graduation from AIMS, I was hired at my internship site as a per diem tech. I was even trained in their vascular lab which is one of the specialties that you don't get much training for in school. Because of this, I was so grateful that I had the opportunity here. I had so much coverage there that I was basically a full time worker! It was amazing. I learned so many great techniques there and took them with me as I moved to my full time job.

Hunterdon Medical Center was my first official full time employer. I worked here every single weekend doing two 16 hour shifts completely alone, back to back, after doing a regular 8 hour shift. Working alone over the weekend was tough at times but it made me improve my time management and helped me feel even more confident in myself. During the time at my job, I realized that I wanted more for my life and decided to start a degree in computer science.

Once COVID happened, I was told my employer could no longer afford my position and so for a brief time, I was furloughed. It was very scary to feel as if my job was at risk even though the ultrasound department within hospitals were deemed necessary to stay open. I was furloughed for about 6 months and within that time, I was told I was not guaranteed my job back so I began looking for other jobs.

At the end of 2020, I luckily found a new job that could replace part of my old shift since my old position was not going to be available due to budget. Capital Health became my new home, and I am still working there to this day doing doubles on the weekend.

My path to technical school

During high school, I unfortunately got pretty acquainted with getting ultrasounds done due to the horrible experience of having kidney stones. After getting ultrasounds done trying to search for my stones, I decided that I was really interested in performing ultrasounds.

When you get an ultrasound, if you haven't been trained to see what's on the screen, you will have no idea what you're actually looking at. It intrigued me so much and made me want to learn. This is what led me to going to school at The American Institute of Medical Science and Education (AIMS).

During my time at AIMS, I met amazing professors and outstanding classmates. During my time here, I learned about general small parts and abdominal ultrasound, obstetric and gynecological ultrasound, and vascular ultrasound. In the beginning, it was so hard to determine what was on the screen, but a few weeks in, everyones' lightbulb went off and we were all succeeding during our lab time.

After 3 years of lectures and labs, we all got to go to an assigned internship. I was lucky to be placed at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton and with a tech, Denise, that truly enjoyed teaching. Denise is why I am such a great ultrasound tech today.