From first aid to echocardiography: healthcare career pathways

Although first aid and CPR certificates are a common requirement for healthcare jobs, student placements and volunteer roles, they will not get you into echocardiography on their own. In Australia, healthcare career pathways into cardiac sonography usually involve a science or health degree, followed by a postgraduate course accredited by the Australian Sonographer Accreditation Registry (ASAR) that is completed alongside a clinical training position, and finally ASAR accreditation.

Why do healthcare jobs ask for a first aid certificate?

The main reason is that employers have to provide first aid, and a nationally recognised Statement of Attainment is the standard evidence that someone can give it. Universities and volunteer groups often ask for the same certificates before they send you out to patients or players.

In Victoria, employers' first aid duties come from the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. WorkSafe Victoria's compliance code says that first aid officers should, at a minimum, hold a Statement of Attainment for Provide First Aid (HLTAID011) from a registered training organisation. Outside Victoria, Safe Work Australia's model Code of Practice sets the same minimum, and your state or territory regulator can tell you which version applies.

Universities build the requirement into their placement checks. At the University of Melbourne, multiple health disciplines require HLTAID011 before placement, and some also want HLTAID009 Provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation repeated every year. Because the faculty says it can take up to three weeks to book and complete the training, it is worth arranging early.

Community and volunteer roles can ask for it as well. In most major sporting codes, working as a sports trainer means holding Sports Medicine Australia accreditation, and its Level 1 Sports Trainer course requires HLTAID011 completed within the past three years and HLTAID009 within the past 12 months.

Although the Statement of Attainment itself does not expire, both workplace codes recommend refreshing CPR every year and first aid every three years, and employers, placement teams and clubs often make those intervals a requirement. The training guideline from the Australian and New Zealand Committee on Resuscitation (ANZCOR) gives the practical reason, noting that CPR skills can fade within weeks to months of a course.

HLTAID011 covers calling Triple Zero (000), CPR, using an automated external defibrillator (AED) and first aid for conditions such as chest pain, asthma and anaphylaxis. If you are heading towards cardiology, it also gives you a practical first look at cardiac emergencies.

Which healthcare career pathways lead into cardiac imaging?

A degree usually comes first, and the way in is often through a job or contacts inside imaging or cardiology. Accredited sonography courses are mostly postgraduate, and the Australasian Sonographers Association (ASA) says that many students secure their clinical training placement through their existing workplace.

Each starting point covers part of that:

• Nurses and allied health professionals usually hold a suitable health degree and already work alongside clinicians.
• Cardiac technicians record the heart's electrical activity for cardiologists, which means they already work in the clinics where echocardiograms are performed.
• People in entry-level health jobs, such as reception in an imaging practice, gain industry contacts but no clinical qualification, so they still need a degree for postgraduate entry.
• Science graduates and career changers have the degree but often lack the contacts, which makes the placement search harder.

The ASA says that getting a placement can be competitive. ASAR, which does not run courses or arrange placements, suggests contacting the HR teams at as many imaging practices as you can and talking to anyone you know in the industry.

What is the realistic route to becoming a cardiac sonographer?

You will need an ASAR-accredited qualification, usually a graduate diploma or master's in cardiac sonography, which you complete while working in a clinical training position, followed by accreditation with ASAR. The steps are as follows:

1. Finish a degree in health science or a related field. One exception is CQUniversity's combined Bachelor of Echocardiography and Cardiac Physiology/Graduate Diploma of Echocardiography, which starts at undergraduate level and helps arrange placements.
2. Secure a clinical training position. Most universities want one in place before you start, and you need to arrange it yourself.
3. Enrol in an ASAR-accredited cardiac program and register with ASAR as an Accredited Student Sonographer once your clinical placement starts.
4. Complete the clinical training. The ASA recommends at least three days a week over two years, which is about 2,200 hours.
5. Upgrade to Accredited Medical Sonographer once you have finished the course. Sonographers performing Medicare-funded scans for a medical practitioner must be on the register that ASAR keeps on Medicare's behalf.

Our guide to becoming a cardiac sonographer in Australia covers each step in more detail.

Where does our echocardiography career pathway fit?

Our pathway provides hands-on, in-depth training for graduates. You take it before the university route and, if you are selected for Part 3, alongside it, and it prepares you for the day-to-day work of a cardiac sonographer. Students sometimes come to us knowing the theory well but unable to apply it with a probe in their hand, and the pathway is where they gain that practice.

The clinical parts take place mainly at Heartscope, the group of cardiology clinics run by our parent company, Scope Healthcare Limited. There are four stages, all of which are linked from our ultrasound courses page:

1. Basic Echocardiography (6 weeks): this is the entry course for people with a completed science or related health degree, and no echo experience is needed. You attend 17 half-day supervised scanning sessions at our Melbourne training centre, bring an adult volunteer to scan and complete online study between sessions. The aim is to perform a standard echocardiogram on a normal adult, with supervision.
2. Applied Echocardiography, Part 1 (7 weeks): you learn to recognise common heart conditions, take consistent measurements and prepare a preliminary report for review. It includes one lesson at a Heartscope clinic with supervised probe time, and you need to pass a progression review to move on.
3. Clinical Rotations, Part 2 (8 weeks, full time): you observe echo examinations and patient care at Heartscope and approved clinical sites, and see how electrocardiogram (ECG), Holter and blood pressure monitoring fit alongside echo. This stage is unpaid, and you do not scan patients during it.
4. Industry Based Learning, Part 3 (72 weeks): this is a salaried, supervised trainee position with Heartscope while you study cardiac sonography at postgraduate level. It is employment with Heartscope, which sits outside Scope's courses. Because it is a paid job scanning patients, places are limited and are filled by interview and Heartscope selection after you complete Parts 1 and 2.

Part 3 links the pathway to the university route, because it is the kind of supervised clinical training position that most postgraduate courses require. Successful applicants receive a conditional Heartscope offer and a clinical training support letter for their university application, and the university then decides whether the site, supervision and your prior experience meet its requirements. If you are not selected, you can still use your certificates and scanning experience when you apply for training positions elsewhere.

Does the pathway make you a qualified sonographer?

No. To qualify, you still need an ASAR-accredited university course and its clinical training. Our echocardiography courses are non-accredited practical training, and each one leads to a Scope Institute certificate recording the hours and topics you completed. These certificates are well regarded as evidence of the supervised practice behind them.

Before you enrol, it helps to understand how the pathway works in practice:

• Part 3 places are limited, so finishing Parts 1 and 2 does not guarantee one.
• You need to enrol in the university course yourself and pay its fees separately.
• Your university decides what, if anything, it recognises from your Scope training and logbook.
• The Heartscope position lasts 72 weeks, while your university course and its clinical requirements may take longer.
• Clinical Rotations and Industry Based Learning require a current police check and a Working with Children Check, which you need to arrange and pay for.

In return, you gain supervised scanning time, clinic exposure and a clear idea of whether cardiac imaging suits you before you commit to two years of postgraduate study.

Which course should you start with?

• If a job, placement or volunteer role requires a first aid certificate, you will need HLTAID011 Provide First Aid, which includes CPR, from a registered training organisation. If you are considering Scope Institute, you may like to look at our HLTAID011 Provide First Aid course, or the shorter HLTAID009 Provide CPR course if you only need to update CPR. Our guide to choosing between HLTAID011 and HLTAID009 can help, but please make sure to check which unit your employer or university asks for.
• If you hold a science or related health degree and want to find out whether cardiac scanning suits you, you might like to start with a training provider that can assist you with the fundamentals of echocardiography. If you are considering Scope Institute, you may like to start with Basic Echocardiography, and you can book a consultation from its page to talk the pathway through first.
• If you do not have a degree yet, that needs to come first. ASAR's accredited course list shows which programs start at undergraduate level.

Sources

• Prospective Students – Australasian Sonographers Association
• Frequently Asked Questions – Australian Sonographer Accreditation Registry
• Compliance code: First aid in the workplace – WorkSafe Victoria
• Model Code of Practice: First aid in the workplace – Safe Work Australia
• CPR and First Aid – University of Melbourne, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
• Level 1 Sports Trainer – Sports Medicine Australia