Well said, Joe. I have always found it odd that everyone finds it "unnecessarily" arrogant
of us--including many sonographers--to care about our professional title, yet it's
understandable and acceptable for other professionals to expect use of their proper titles-
-even when not directly referring to their profession--try calling a doctor "Mr." or "Ms."
even socially. Without even knowing that anyone else was sensitive to the title issue, it
was very important to me fresh out of school. When a patient's family member referred
to me as "...just a 'photographer'...she doesn't know anything...don't ask her any
questions," I didn't hesitate to set him straight, and quite politely, I might add,
considering the anger that was bubbling inside me.
That said, I don't think the term "sonographer" holds any more water outside our
profession than do "tech" or "technologist." In my humble and often too-sensitive opinion
based mostly on simple medical terminology, it means "person who takes sonographs or
sonograms," and we know that in vascular imaging, it's *so* much more than that--much
like a photographer takes photographs. Truth be told, that's just how laypeople and much
of the rest of the medical community view us.
In fact, I remember one physician who had been "trained" not to use the words "tech" or
"technician" always made a point of being very sarcastic when he referred to us by title,
saying in a very condescending, smarmy tone: "It's *technologist*, not "technician," but
you could hear the implied: "But it's also not MD, PhD or even nurse, so who cares?"
However, right now, I'd just be happy to be a gainfully employed "tech" or "technician" or
"snotographer" because unemployed is the worst title of all.
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