Re: The Health Physics Profession -Reply

[Charles Willis <CAW@nrc.gov>]

Radsafers,

Perhaps I have said too much already, but here I go again.  I must disagree with
several things that have been said in this forum.

First, there was the comment that "certification does not make a person a better
health physicist."  This is completely at odds with my experience (which covers the
period in which the HP certificataion program has existed).  I have never known
anyone to pass the certification examinations without learning  more about the
discipline than he/she knew before trying for certification.  Of course someone may
have passed the examinations without study but what I see every year is people
entering a certification prep. program and being astounded by the breadth of the
the profession.  Some people simply drop out but most struggle through the
program but do not bother to take the examinations.  Another substantial group
takes the examinations without preparation and fail dismally.  These people at least
gain some appreciation for the limitations of their knowledge and the stronger ones
do the preparation and then pass the examinations.  In my experience, certification
does make people better health physicists.

Second, there is the furor over the degree requirement for certification.  Again,
experience should be considered.  That is, people without degrees rarely pass the
examinations so their attempts are a waste of resources.  We all know "good"
health physicists who lack degrees but, in my experience, these are either people
who got into this business long ago or people who found a  niche where they could
be effective despite their limited technical expertise.  The references to historical
figures who have achieved greatness without college educations is irrelevant
because the world has changed; today, degrees are more commonplace than high
school graduations were before World War 2.  Furthermore, standards generally
are much higher today than they once were.  For example, in the 1860s, the Dean
of the Harvard medical school remarked that, of course, they did not require
medical students to take written examinations because the students could not read
or write that well.  (Life expectancy at birth in those days was about half what it is
today.)  

Certainly, a degree isn't everything.  The troubles I have had trying to educate
people with PhDs in theoretical physics to become health physicists attest to that,
but a degree is an important step.

Third, someone asked if we knew of incompetent people working as health
physicists.  Sadly, the answer is a resounding yes.  Conditions are much better than
they once were but there is ample room for improvement.  It would be
inappropriate to relate a bunch of war stories here but I must mention a medical/
health physicist with about 20 years experience who did not understand even the
inverse square law!  He simply plugged numbers into formulas and there was no
one at that hospital to check to see that he used the right formuals.  This guy was
practicing medical/health physics, not long ago and far away, but about 2 years ago
near Washington, DC.  Definitely, there are problem people in our field.

Finally, I believe we need credentials to identify people with expertise in various
areas, including health physics.  This is more true than it once was because the
population is larger, our organizations are larger, and we need to hire people from
outside our immediate circle of  friends and family.

I have said too much, so I will sign off.

Charlie Willis
caw@nrc.gov