Nuclear Medicine Technology program
Join the field of precision medicine.
Do you want to work in a healthcare career that plays a crucial role in providing doctors with information to help them diagnose diseases and provides life-saving treatments for patients?
Nuclear Medicine Technologists work on the cutting edge of the radiology field to more precisely diagnose and treat patients with a wide variety of diseases. These healthcare professionals work with a growing number of radiopharmaceuticals and high-tech imaging instruments and cameras to pinpoint health problems and evaluate the aggressiveness of the disease. This is a highly-rewarding healthcare career where you see your patients throughout their entire health journey.
If you would like an active career where no two days are the same and your objective is caring for and treating patients, this may be the right career for you. UW-La Crosse’s accredited program offers three years of solid academic and laboratory preparation at UWL and one year of internship experience.
What is nuclear medicine?
You’ve likely heard of an X-ray, CT scan or MRI. These are only a few tools to visualize what’s happening inside the body anatomically. Nuclear medicine is a branch of radiology that takes images for anatomical purpose and injects radiopharmaceuticals — radioactivity bound to biological molecules — that trace the function of a particular disease. Aligned with the anatomical images, radiopharmaceuticals provide more sensitive and detailed images to see the disease at the molecular and cellular level. This allows disease diagnosis in earlier stages and helps treat diseases more effectively. Radiopharmaceuticals are also used for high-precision cancer treatments. Nuclear medicine procedures are safe for the patient and the technologist.
Nuclear medicine technologist jobs
NMT is a dynamic healthcare career that performs hundreds of different imaging and therapy procedures for a wide variety of diseases. Because of the wide variety of diseases, technologists work with patients who are infants to senior adults and everyone in between.
A technologist works performs procedures independently and as a team member often made up of other technologists, nurses, physicists, pharmacists, or radiologists. It is the only career that is qualified in the making and administering of radioactive drugs and is the only radiology career that both takes images and treats diseases. The career performs a wide variety of tasks that include making radiopharmaceuticals in a lab setting, operating over a dozen of different advanced imaging cameras, processing images, and most importantly providing patient-center care. It is a highly rewarding career with providing care for patients both physically and emotionally as well as the field becoming the future of personalized care and precision medicine.
NMT is the highest paying and most in demand healthcare career with only 4 years of schooling! Employment of nuclear medicine technologists has seen dramatic growth over the past 10 years as new radiopharmaceuticals, imaging technologies, and cancer treatments are continually developed. Employment of NMTs is expected to grow 8% from 2020 to 2030, faster than the average for all occupations. Most technologists work day shifts during the weekdays creating a good work-life balance.
After completing a nuclear medicine technology bachelor’s degree program, students must pass the Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board exam, to become a certified nuclear medicine technologist (CNMT). With this certification, graduates can work anywhere in the world with a variety of career routes. Most initially become practicing nuclear medicine technologists who work with patients in a healthcare setting, but many other career routes are available.
Positions
- Nuclear medicine technologist
- Radiochemist/lab technician
- Radiology engineer
- Radiology supervisor
- Medical sales
- Research technologist
- Healthcare education
- Physicist assistant
- Quality assurance specialist
- Radiation safety officer
- Healthcare data analyst
Further education
- Physician assistant
- Medical dosimetrist
- Healthcare administration
- Medical physics
- Pharmacist
What distinguishes UWL’s Nuclear Medicine Technologist program?
UWL’s program is the largest NMT B.S. in the nation! This comes along with a strong reputation among employers in the midwest and nationally! The program is also the only B.S. NMT program in the state of WI, but also the only NMT B.S. program with clinical sites in MN, IL, ND, and SD. The large size of this program allows for it to have access to opportunities and more specialized courses compared to smaller programs. But the program is still small enough to provide a family-like supportive and personalized environment as soon as students arrive on campus.
UWL’s NMT program internship sites are some of the largest and best healthcare organization systems in the nation and even the world. This allows interns to work in high patient volume departments in the many different areas of nuclear medicine.
- UW Health – Madison, WI
- Mayo Clinic – Rochester, MN
- Gundersen Health System – La Crosse, WI
- M Health Fairview – Minneapolis, MN
- Sanford Health – Fargo, ND
- Mayo Clinic – Eau Claire, WI
- Sanford Health – Sioux Falls, SD
- Northwestern Medicine – Chicago, IL
- Marshfield Medical Center – Marshfield, WI
- Aurora St. Lukes Medical Center – Milwaukee, WI
- Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, WI
UWL’s program is accredited by the Joint Review Committee on Educational Programs in Nuclear Medicine Technology (JRCNMT).
All graduates of this program have passed the national certification exam. The program has also had 100% placement of students in related careers, most get hired before graduation.
Due to UWL NMT graduates having a higher education degree and having more patient interaction to build stronger communications skills compared to most employed within the radiology field; it is very common that NMT graduates advance their careers to radiology supervisors, managers, and administrators.
NMT graduates also have the possibility of growing their skills and working in other fields of radiology by becoming a CT or MRI technician without the need of going back to school, just by receiving additional training hours from their employers and taking an additional certification exam. Due to a higher level of specific education requirements, individuals who graduate from a radiography or nursing program cannot work within NMT, even with additional training.
Student involvement opportunities Students have opportunities on campus through the Nuclear Medicine Technology Club and Lambda Nu Honor Society – Alpha Chapter. These groups provide networking, professional development, team building, and community service opportunities. Students can also join the Society for Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging and the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT).
Students have the opportunity to attend regional and national conferences where they can present their research projects and get to network with individuals from all over the world. Students also get a chance to partake in a fun “Battle of the Minds Quiz Bowl,” a jeopardy-styled competition where they test their knowledge against each other and NMT students from other programs. UWL students have been the reigning champions of this competition for many years.
Other NMT programs only prepare graduates to become technologists, but this program prepares graduates for multiple career pathways. The program not only offers more higher-level specialized courses, but also teaches leadership, professional development, problem-solving and emotional intelligence. This program provides knowledge, skills, and abilities to be successful in NMT, as well as information on how to continuously make any career meaningful and purposeful.
Sample courses
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