Working

A Day on the Job

Jessie Burke, Registered nurse, sonographer, OB/GYN Associates, St. Petersburg

What kind of hours do you work?

8 to 5 (p.m.), Monday through Friday.

I've been licensed since 1984. I'm an RN (registered nurse) and a registered diagnostic medical sonographer.

Mostly I'm a phone nurse. I triage calls in the back, and then part of the week I'm a sonographer.

We take the calls from patients who call in with problems. I take Dr. (Beth) Benson's calls and calls for one of the nurse practitioners. We try to decide how urgent the call is, and try to get them in as soon as possible, if that's what's necessary, or give them advice over the phone.

A half day. It used to be two half days, but right now we're in the middle of new scheduling.

Oh, yeah. I took the national registry exam for that. I took a week of specialized training at the University of Miami but most of it I learned on the job. I had to do so many scans a year, but I still had to pass the national exam, which was very hard. I was training on the job for about two years before I took my exam.

It's the computer interpreting sound waves. The computer renders the picture using a gray scale based on the rate of the sound waves as they hit a hard or soft surface.

At this office we do GYN (gynecological) scans and OB (obstetrical) scans. A GYN scan may be for a woman who has abnormal bleeding, to try and locate ovarian cancers, anything that is abnormal with the ovaries. And then with the OB scans we do vaginal scans before 10 weeks, because then you can really see the uterus and ovaries and the baby really up close. And then we try to do a 20-week scan on all our (pregnant) patients, because that's when the baby is most developed to be able to see any abnormalities.

We measure the baby's head; usually we do side-to-side, front to back. And we get abdominal circumference, femur length. And usually from that, we're able to get a weight (calculation). From that you can get an average, so you can say that the baby is growing in the 50th percentile. You also look for the fluids and placenta and check for any cysts on the ovaries.

One of the most common things would be a problem with the baby's kidneys. We evaluate the kidneys. We're looking at the spine and getting a heartbeat. That's just kind of your basic scan.

To see the bonding with the parents and their child. Because I think, especially for the guys, it makes them know that there's something there, that it's a reality. And a lot of moms feel that way too. You know, to be able to see their own baby's heartbeat is awesome, I think.

Well, obviously there are sad outcomes, and it's pretty hard to tell someone. A lot of times you have to tell them, like I'm not seeing a heartbeat, but I should. Sometimes if they're not getting the gist of what you're telling them, you just have to say, "I'm sorry, the baby's dead." That's hard.

I just think it's rather neat because babies, to me, have this inner world, it's like a biosphere, you know. Some (babies) are moving a lot, some are not, some you can see their face or their hands. It's like seeing inside this other world.

People get angry when you can't tell them what sex their baby is. They really do. And I try not to call it, unless I can really see it, and some days babies are just not in the right position, or they're too small to tell.

I'm not comfortable discussing that. I'm an employee of OB/GYN, but other contract sonographers, the people who are not hired by a hospital or doctor's office, I would say they make in the range of $25 to $35 per scan.

Probably what I'm doing right now. Because, mostly in OB (obstetrics) you get to meet young people, happy to be having a family. It's generally a happy tone.

Click here for the Neighborhood Times Social Calendar

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright