Board radiographer thinking of a new career and wondering about biomedical engineerin

kiwipower

I have been working as a Radiographer for 10years now, but am getting board with it (no challenge to the job) and am beginning to think its time for a change of career.

I love getting to play with the internal workings of the equipment and the software that drives it all (much to the annoyance of managers! ) Im the radiographer that’s always hassling the engineers and physicist when they are working on problems so that I can understand what gone wrong and what I can do next time to fix the problem myself!

I always enjoyed physics and science at school and guess that’s why I feel into radiography. I love to problem solve and try to find an easier/quicker way to use equipment, or to carry out a task. I had been thinking recently that maybe I would like to get into equipment design (especially mammography and other x-ray equipment.) Though not sure how many job opportunities there are for this.

Anyway someone suggested maybe I should look at Biomedical Engineering. Looking at what wiki say about BME it sounds like something that could interest me.

Just wondering a few things about moving in this direction:
· Is it possible to get into BME from a postgrad level? I see from the NUIG website that their course is a graduate level course and I already have a Bachelor of Applied Science in Medical Imaging Technology from NZ so don’t think I will be allegeable to study another degree in Ireland.
· What are the job prospects like for BME’s in Ireland?

Cheers
KP

Turbulent Bill

Have you approached any of the medical equipment manufacturers directly for a job? There are plenty of engineers who work for these, but I'd say they have far fewer people with lots of real-world imaging experience - not many radiographers move away from the medical field. You could sell yourself as an expert user to help their equipment development, and not need a BME postgrad.

TCD also has a good bioengineering postgrad, see http://www.tcd.ie/bioengineering/

CatFromHue

ul do a masters course in biomechanical eng

http://www2.ul.ie/web/WWW/Faculties/Science_&_Engineering/Departments/Mechanical_&_Aeronautical_Engineering/Courses/Bio_Engineering

you should contact them with your questions. or contact any college that does a biomedical course. it would only take a bit of searching on the internet to get contact details and usually the heads of courses are helpfull.

stryker in cork seem to advertise for engineers and of the few jobs i have seen out there at the moment most do seem to be in the medical devices area. considering we're in a recession you canso that what you want from that

kiwipower

Thanks for the info folks!
At the mo I am just beginning to turn the idea over in my head. I have a bad habit of choosing a new career every couple of months when I get sick of the lack of challenge and dealing with the HSE! (Last month I was going to be a Doctor, month before a Pilot!)
I thought 15 years on from college I would have a better idea of what I wanted to do with my life,.. but no such luck!
Something with a challenge and variety seems to be the way of it!

bnt

If you're in Dublin, UCD has a couple of options e.g. you could try a M.E. in Biomedical Engineering (prospectus). 6 core credits plus 6 option credits with a fairly wide range. They say they require you to have a degree in Engineering first, and yours was in Science, but since you have experience I wonder if they'd accept that too? It wouldn't hurt to ask - there's a contact address on that prospectus.