practice of health physics

[melissa (M. Woo)]

At the risk of bringing up yet another round of ranting...

While on the subject of what health physics is and is not, I'd like to ask
a question of those working in academic or somewhat similar environments.

"How much of your time is actually spent doing health physics?"

As an example, I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon at a TQM
meeting.  Time spent in such activities is not unusual, and in fact, I seem
to be spending in inordinate amount of time in activities that have
absolutely nothing to do with health physics.  I'm not sure whether or not
to be embarrassed to admit that I spent some of the meeting doing some
mental dose calculations.   

So... is this the case at similar institutions?  (And will anyone
actually answer this in a public forum? <grin>)

(I admit that my situation is a little unusual.  Although I was hired as the
staff health physicist, I'm currently carrying out the duties of what I
like to call "pretend" section head, as we have not yet filled the
position.  Unfortunately, this means that much of the health physics duties
have been passed along to the person who supervises our technicians, and I
suspect that he isn't all too happy about the situation, either.)

-- 
Melissa Woo                       | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Health Physicist                  | Environmental Health & Safety Bldg., MC225
office phone: 1.217.244.7233      | 101 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL  61801
m-woo@uiuc.edu                    | http://www.cso.uiuc.edu/ph/www/m-woo