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Re: HP as a career & qualifications
Ron Kathrin and Sandy Perle had the following exchange:
I think that there is a mixing of Licensure and Certification. Ron is
correct wrt the practice of Medicine. One needs to be licensed vice
certified. Licensure in Medicine is by the States. No certification is
required to practice medicine. Now having said that there is the issue of
credentialing. Within any medical center all physicians who have been
granted privileges to admit patients, read x-rays, work in the clinical lab
or perform surgery must be credentialed to do so. The credentialing
process generally requires that the physician be certified OR have mentored
training and experience. The latter is somewhat more difficult to
prove/document than a Board Certification.
In Health Physics and Medical Health Physics we have not been required to
be credentialed in order to perform our jobs. This is one of the primary
and probably most significant differences between the HP, Medical HP,
Medical Physicist and Physician. There are no laws, credentialing body
regulations (e.g. JCAHO) or broad, regularly used standards which require
credentialing before we can perform HP activities.
Jerry Thomas
>
>You failed to answer my question, and did not even refer to the engineer.
>My response follows.
>
>
>>Your points are well taken, and I can't argue them to any degree. I
>>will only add that for one to practice medicine, that they MUST hold
>>a medical degree, and secondly, pass the certification
>>requirements in the state in which they wish to practice. The same
>>can be said for attorneys as well.
>
>I know of no state certification requirements for physicians or attorneys
>who wish to practice their professions; in most states, including Washington
>(mine) and California (yours), a licensed physician can offer practice in
>any specialty and can legally perform any procedure. It is only
>professional pressure that limits an individual's practice. In our state at
>least, an attorney BY LAW cannot claim to specialize, and can gain a license
>without a law degree if he/she has met specific study requirements.
>
>>Unless there is a specific
>>requirement by a facility, there is no statewide, or national
>>requirement for someone who professes to be a health physicist,
>>that they also have a degree, and, hold a certification.
>
CAPT Jerry A. Thomas, MSC, USN
Chief Radiological Physics
Department of Radiology/Nuclear Medicine
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
4301 Jones Bridge Road
Bethesda, MD 20814-4799
mailto:jthomas@usuhs.mil
Phone: (301) 295-3246
Fax: (301) 295-3893
Homepage: http://radlinux1.usuf1.usuhs.mil/rad/
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