Profession-based career framework and career pathways: insights from Australian and New Zealand sonographers
Date
2025
Authors
Thoirs, K.
Kinnane, P.
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Journal article
Citation
Sonography, online, 2025; online(4):1-16
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Abstract
Introduction: A profession-based career framework for sonographers could assist with sonographer career development by guiding organisational career development frameworks, sonographer career planning and informing the alignment of professional knowledge and skills with education. This study aimed to determine what sonographers thought about a profession-based career framework, to estimate the proportion of sonographers currently operating under career frameworks and to explore how they progressed their careers.
Methods: A cross-sectional, anonymous survey was circulated to sonographers working in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).Data were reported as frequencies and percentages. Chi square tests were used to test for associations between responses and employer and country categories.
Results: Most sonographers (77.73%) agreed that an overarching career pathway would be useful and were not working under a career framework (53.83%). Of those working under a career framework, 68.6% indicated the framework was not specifically tailored for sonographers. Sonographers most commonly progressed through an application process (33.58%) via management and leadership domains (76.98%). There were variations in career progression mechanisms and domains available to sonographers by country, Australian states and New Zealand, and employer types.
Conclusion: Sonographers working in ANZ are supportive of a profession-wide career framework. Most sonographers do not have a career framework available to them. A profession-wide career framework for sonographers could help assist with sonographer career planning.
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Data source: supporting information, https://doi.org/10.1002/sono.70013
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Copyright 2025 The Authors. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Access Condition Notes: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.