Individuals are advised to support SNMs effort to upgrade minimum education requirements for nuclear medicine technology certification to a bachelors degree at entry level and undergo certification processes for CT and/or MRI, according to the studys executive summary.

In addition to offering these recommendations, the 2005 survey provides the most comprehensive picture of nuclear medicine technologists ever developed and contains information about demographic characteristics, education, employment, career paths and attitudes about the profession. The future looks bright for nuclear medicine technologists as findings show that technologists enjoy their jobs, find their salaries near the top of the scale for professions with similar educational requirements, are well educated and remain poised for continuing growth and change.


More than 2,200 nuclear medicine technologists (certified either by the Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board and/or the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists) responded to a 60-question survey concerning multiple aspects of the profession, said Anthony Knight, who chaired the SNMTS Advisory Committee for the survey. Knight said that findings indicate that 6 out of 10 (60.5 percent) technologists expect to remain in their current positions for the next five years and that a majority (53.3 percent) indicated that additional training would be necessary to continue their work. Technologists identified a need for training in computed tomography (19.5 percent), PET/CT (37.7 percent), SPECT/CT (13.1 percent), magnetic resonance imaging (3 percent) and mammography/PET (1.2 percent).

Below are additional findings from the survey.

* Salaries: The average total salary of full-time technologists (including wages from being on call) is $70,470. Nuclear medicine technologists working with fusion imaging (such as PET/CT) earn higher salaries than those working in general nuclear medicine. Average total salaries are highest in the West ($82,890) and the Mid-Atlantic region ($71,260); the lowest average salaries are found in the Mountain ($60,690) and Mid-West ($63,210) states.
* Job satisfaction: A majority (53.7 percent) of respondents are very satisfied with their jobs, and nearly 19 out of 20 respondents (94 percent) are very or somewhat satisfied with their jobs.
* Geographical location: The number of certified technologists per states populations varies greatly, with large numbers in states like Nebraska, South Dakota and West Virginia and the smallest concentration in Oklahoma and Nevada.

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