Experience Requirements Overview

  • Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
  • Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
  • Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
  • Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Education, Training and Experience

Required Level of Education: Post-Doctoral Training

Related Work Experience: Over 4 years, up to and including 6 years

On-Site or In-Plant Training: Up to and including 1 month

On-the-Job Training: Over 4 years, up to and including 10 years

Detailed Work Activities

  • Develop healthcare quality and safety procedures.
  • Maintain medical or professional knowledge.
  • Develop medical treatment plans.
  • Verify that medical activities or operations meet standards.
  • Determine protocols for medical procedures.

Work Values

Achievement

Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.

Working Conditions

Recognition

Relationships

Support

Independence

Tasks

  • Prepare comprehensive interpretive reports of findings.
  • Perform or interpret the outcomes of diagnostic imaging procedures including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computer tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), nuclear cardiology treadmill studies, mammography, or ultrasound.
  • Document the performance, interpretation, or outcomes of all procedures performed.
  • Communicate examination results or diagnostic information to referring physicians, patients, or families.
  • Obtain patients' histories from electronic records, patient interviews, dictated reports, or by communicating with referring clinicians.
  • Review or transmit images and information using picture archiving or communications systems.
  • Confer with medical professionals regarding image-based diagnoses.
  • Recognize or treat complications during and after procedures, including blood pressure problems, pain, oversedation, or bleeding.
  • Develop or monitor procedures to ensure adequate quality control of images.
  • Provide counseling to radiologic patients to explain the processes, risks, benefits, or alternative treatments.
  • Establish or enforce standards for protection of patients or personnel.
  • Coordinate radiological services with other medical activities.
  • Instruct radiologic staff in desired techniques, positions, or projections.
  • Participate in continuing education activities to maintain and develop expertise.
  • Participate in quality improvement activities including discussions of areas where risk of error is high.
  • Perform interventional procedures such as image-guided biopsy, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, transhepatic biliary drainage, or nephrostomy catheter placement.
  • Develop treatment plans for radiology patients.
  • Administer radioisotopes to clinical patients or research subjects.
  • Advise other physicians of the clinical indications, limitations, assessments, or risks of diagnostic and therapeutic applications of radioactive materials.
  • Calculate, measure, or prepare radioisotope dosages.
  • Check and approve the quality of diagnostic images before patients are discharged.
  • Compare nuclear medicine procedures with other types of procedures, such as computed tomography, ultrasonography, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, and angiography.
  • Direct nuclear medicine technologists or technicians regarding desired dosages, techniques, positions, and projections.
  • Establish and enforce radiation protection standards for patients and staff.
  • Formulate plans and procedures for nuclear medicine departments.
  • Monitor handling of radioactive materials to ensure that established procedures are followed.
  • Prescribe radionuclides and dosages to be administered to individual patients.
  • Review procedure requests and patients' medical histories to determine applicability of procedures and radioisotopes to be used.
  • Teach nuclear medicine, diagnostic radiology, or other specialties at graduate educational level.
  • Test dosage evaluation instruments and survey meters to ensure they are operating properly.

Work Styles

Achievement/Effort

Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.

Persistence

Initiative

Leadership

Cooperation

Concern for Others

Social Orientation

Self-Control

Stress Tolerance

Adaptability/Flexibility

Dependability

Attention to Detail

Integrity

Independence

Innovation

Analytical Thinking

Data Source: This page includes information from the O*NET 28.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. This page includes Employment Projections program, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.