Nuclear Medicine Technologist as a career in Australia?
January 18, 2010 by
Filed under nuclear medicine
I am thinking of starting a degree to become a Nuclear Medicine Technologist. Does anyone know how much a nuclear medicine technologist earns a year in Australia? Or their working conditions such as how many hours they work per week (in australia).
It would be great if anybody who works in the field could tell me how satisfied they are with their jobs.
Thank you for all replies 
In america, a nuclear medicine technologist does pretty well, starting off at between $17/hour and $25/hour, depending on where you go. Almost all nuclear medicine technologists work full time here (40 hours per week), unless you work part time. Also on-call shifts are very common, as sometimes emergency scans have to be done at night. There are three aspects of nuclear medicine: research, therapeutic, and diagnostic. The majority of nuclear medicine are diagnostic imaging (scans), which are very similar to a CT scan (Cat-scan). Although at smaller hospitals, techs usually do both therapies and imaging scans. Therapys are usually for thyroid disorders and cancer and non-hodgkins lymphoma treatment. PET is another modality of nuclear medicine, in which the procedure is very similar to a CT scan. In all imaging procedures (including PET), the tech gives the patient an injection (or a pill…and occasionally radioactive eggs) of a radioactive tracer. After that, the tech places the patient on an imaging table and lets the camera take the pictures. It is a very layed back job, probably less stressful then nursing. Often the patients are just in and out, and almost always scheduled. You only have to worry about one patient at a time, and with modern nuc med technology, imaging becomes easier and easier by letting the camera do all the work (such as 3D imaging….or SPECT). It’s actually a very fun job, as you get to work with many different types of diseases and are able to save lives, and get to help the radiologists look at the images to make the diagnosis, and you will ALWAYS be learning.
It is also a growing field, so you’ll always have a nice job. BTW, I work in nuclear medicine, if you couldn’t tell
I hope this helps.
-monco