Beyond Technically Difficult Studies: Overcoming Challenges as Sonographers

Sonographers are painfully familiar with the three words: Technically Difficult Study. These are the kinds of studies that leave you feeling defeated despite your efforts. I would like to expand the idea of technically difficult studies to include other challenges that we face that may or may not be directly related to tedious ultrasound examinations.

To those who operate outside of the world of ultrasound, the job of a sonographer may not appear difficult or even challenging. This view woefully understates the many challenges we have and how they affect our professional and personal lives. The issue of suboptimal acoustic windows certainly remains on the list of TDS, but sonographers also experience difficulty in patient encounters, in work environments, and in finding balance.

My goal is to illuminate these difficulties and make suggestions, some of which I have had to utilize to enjoy longevity in the field without losing my passion.

Time management and mentorship

??????????? New sonographers often have a difficult time with time management in the first couple of months of independent scanning. I remember being fresh out of school, having more questions than answers. There was also a bit of imposter syndrome and the ever-present fear that my lack of experience may lead to a poor patient outcome. Today, technological advancements in speckle tracking, 3-Dimensional imaging, and artificial intelligence (AI) present new areas in which new graduates (and veterans) need to gain competency. It can be a real challenge understanding and applying these technologies appropriately while still perfecting the basics of using the Pedoff probe.

This transition from student to sonographer can be made easier if the right resources are made available and utilized.

I always encourage students to continuously invest in their own learning. There are endless resources online that could shed light on a technically difficult situation.

It is also important for new (and even tenured) sonographers to seek out those who can truly mentor them. Mentorship creates a safe space where it is ok to not have all the right answers.

Actively seeking answers and applying the knowledge found is how growth happens.

We all need someone we can lean on for support when we are emotionally drained or need a second set of eyes when we simply have no idea what we are looking at.

Navigating the workplace

??????????? In my perfect world, every diagnostic imaging lab is filled with personalities that intertwine in harmony to create the most wonderful place on earth where every day feels like Christmas morning. In this perfect world, all the staff and leadership team are sacrificially committed to excellence. Unfortunately, this is not our reality. In the real-world, workplace challenges, contentions, and even chaos are not uncommon. Some might argue that they are more common than they should be.

In most labs, the team is usually made up of qualified nurses, technologists, sonographers, administrators, and physicians. We sometimes forget that each person on the team has a life outside of the lab where they may be raising a family, struggling to finish a degree, dealing with a financial crisis, praying through a medical emergency, or facing extenuating situations that we know nothing about.

Still, it is quite unpleasant to deal with uncouth or divisive team members who seem to be committed to making the workplace as toxic as possible and in some cases they seem to get away with it. It will be difficult to truly live your passion when the environment is laced with barriers.

Sonographers all over the country live in these situations daily and there is no easy answer or solution to these ‘technically difficult’ situations. Each situation requires an individualized response, and we must all be prepared to make our mental health and personal fulfillment a priority.

These responses may take the form of engaging leadership, changing your work environment, or finding ways to find and better utilize the resources available to manage your own happiness.

Confronting COVID-19 and its effects

??????????? At the height of the COVID19 pandemic in 2020 (and beyond) many sonographers remained on the front lines to serve the patients in need of our expertise. Many of us were fearful, confused, and emotionally drained but we served anyway. We powered through and many times ignored our needs and that of our families while we stood between life and death every day alongside the providers and nurses. Our drive and commitment to serve forced us to push forward even in times when our safety was uncertain.

Years of these high levels of stress and uncertainty took a definite toll on many health professionals who suffered from burnout. I echo Dr. Sofia Legoretta’s thoughts in her article, Frontline Sonographers: What the Pandemic Taught Us, when she says that “healthcare workers on the frontlines of the pandemic like us had spent a great deal of time and energy trying to take care of patients the best way we knew while also trying to keep ourselves and other staff members safe too.” Several studies that examined the mental impact during this time showed a remarkable increase in stress levels and feelings of burnout among healthcare workers from 30-40% in spring 2020 to greater than 60% in fall 2020.

Burnout happens when the intensity of work-related responsibilities persists and stretches the mental, emotional, and physical capacity of any worker too thin. For sonographers, it results when one is faced with technically difficult situations time and again with no sense of balance or support. Outside of our professional lives, we are fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, sons, daughters, friends, and so much more. Without a sense of balance and boundaries, we run the risk of imploding or disappointing the person in our lives that may need us the most. Self-care can take on many forms so it’s important to choose which method is the best fit for our individual needs.

TDS can lead to growth

??????????? While at times unfavorable, life without technically difficult studies would create an environment where we experience no growth. It was President Franklin D. Roosevelt who said, “a smooth sea never made a good sailor.” He so poetically expressed the fact that sometimes we need challenges and difficulties to stimulate responses that will ultimately lead to refined skills and deeper understanding.

Avoiding difficultly robs us of the potential to make new discoveries, invent new processes, and become masterful sonographers and leaders. Without challenges there would be no sense of victory. I encourage all my colleagues to find mentorship, protect your mental health, and find balance when dealing with technically difficult studies or situations in your professional life, so you can live a fulfilled life outside the lab.