Radiation Therapy or Nuclear Medicine Technology?
February 7, 2010 by
Filed under nuclear medicine
Radiation Therapy or Nuclear Medicine Technology which program is better and why.
Which has better growth. Also should I get a associate degree or bachelor.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the outlook for radiation therapy is a bit better, and they make a little more money. They degree doesn’t matter so much as long as the school is accredited.
Radiation Therapy: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos299.htm
Nuclear Medicine: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos104.htm
In my opinion, radiation therapy would be the better choice. Nuclear Medicine is a very narrow field and the job outlook is fairly dismal in most areas…Nuc Med does have a bit of competition with CT and MR, as they are utilized more often than Nuc…with Rad Therapy, you don’t have another modality in competition with yours……I just graduated with a degree in Nuc Med this past August here in SE Wisconsin. I am still looking for a job as there are 100 or more people looking for the same job I am…yet the schools here keep pumping out the students. Only a few positions open up yearly here and I do not have an option to move at this point, it is very disappointing and I feel that I have wasted a very large sum of money on a degree I cannot get a job with! As far as a Bach or Assoc, in Nucs it really doesn’t matter as far as the payscale goes as they get paid about the same…..but when looking for a job, they will look at the bachelors degree before the associates. Nuc is a fairly complex field which in my opinion the bach will be more beneficial as far as education….. and by 2012 (or around that time) it will only be a bachelors degree program, there will no longer be associates degrees in Nuc’s. Although, the people that do aquire an associates before that time will be grandfathered in…..Good luck!