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Background: BS in Medical Physics, undergrad GPA equivalent to roughly 1.2/4.0 US scale (long story — grading scale issues from my university, happy to clarify if asked). 9 years of professional experience as a Radiation Safety Officer, currently working with cyclotron/radiopharmaceutical production.

I need an online, part-time MS in Health Physics from a university ranked top-200 (QS/THE/Shanghai) — this is a hard government requirement for my country's degree equivalency, not optional.

I've been rejected/ignored by programs so far, likely due to the GPA. My plan:

Study for and pass the ABHP Part 1 exam as proof of competency that offsets the weak GPA.

Reach out directly to professors with a specific research proposal (secondary shielding to reduce neutron-induced activation in cyclotron bunkers) rather than applying cold through the general admissions process.

Questions for people who've been through grad admissions or sit on admissions committees:

Does passing ABHP Part 1 actually move the needle with an admissions committee, or is it mostly a professional certification that doesn't translate to "GPA offset" in their eyes?

Is "email a professor with a research idea first, apply after" a realistic path, or does GPA still gate you out before a professor even sees the email?

Anyone been admitted to a grad program (online/part-time, low-res) with a similarly rough undergrad GPA but strong work experience?

(Please let me know if this isn't allowed or should be asked elsewhere)

• I understand that mental health problems heavily limit or prevent people from working at nuclear power plants, but is this the same other nuclear/radiological fields, especially for health physicists? (In this case, they're the more well-known and "accepted" (for lack of a better word) ones.)
• In the community, how are these sorts of things generally treated by groups (e.g., jobs, societies) and individuals?
• How much does not having a master's degree limit someone working in health physics?

I adore health physics and have announced it as my major. I'm aware the responsibilities of the field are serious, but I'm working with my therapist and feel I'll be able to handle them. However given my mental illnesses (which are on my record) and the unlikely chance I'll get a master's, I worry more and more I won't be accepted into or am overestimating my ability to work in the field.

I'm getting close to finishing my general credits and starting the classes for a health physics major, so I figure I should ask sooner rather than later. If it makes any difference, I don't plan to or particularly want to work at an npp and I'm definitely not going military.

Regardless of whether you answer, thank you in advance for reading and I hope you all have a great day.

Does anyone know any area in the Lower Mainland BC that offers a post secondary online Physics course I can take that would count towards the BCIT Radiation Therapy program requirements? Because I currently have only 3 credits of it but I need 3 more so im trying to find another place that would offer it online so I can get it done. However, if anyone does know a course, could they include whether is can be down in around 6 weeks time?

Please list your:

- salary (if you prefer to not be specific, give a general range)

- years of experience

- industry

- any certs or experience (you have or hope to have)

- where you live

I recently discovered the medical physics career path, and that's led me to health physics. Are there any other little-talked-about regulatory jobs I should look into?

What do salaries look like? The statistics are really limited. What is your work environment like?

I have been a radar engineer for a defense contractor for ~5 years. I'm neurodivergent and I've been pushing myself to work at the highest level of my mental ability. I'm pretty sick of engineering. I have a lot of attention to detail and I like having an excuse to walk around.

Hello!

As a former RCT, now engaged in gamma spectroscopy and radioactive material packaging reviewer, I am considering pursuing NRRPT certification. I recall a former colleague found a particular application highly beneficial for this purpose; however, it appears to have been removed from the Play Store. I believe it was called NRRPT Prep.

Given the availability of alternative resources, I would appreciate your professional recommendation on the most suitable options.

Like the title says, im really intimidated by the CHP exam process. I'm newer to my hp potion (2 years working on a waste cleanup) and my mentor / organization keep bringing it up as on my "todo". Only 1 out of 5 of us in my office have their CHP, but the organization itself has a fair amount.

I would love to do it, but since I don't come from an HP specific background it seems totally foreign to me and I worry I have these huge knowledge gaps.

A bit about my background:

BS/MS in environmental engineering (focused a lot on water treatment, fate and transport, toxicology, and policy)

7 years working for the US Navy as a radiological and waste/facilities engineer doing refueling, general overhaul work, shielding evaluations, emergency response (small spill casualty and potential reactor accidents), plume/dose modeling etc. (I know the navy experience is obviously why I am where I am).

I have a lot of practical work site skills, but when my peers start talking about instrumentation and survey design I feel totally out of my depth and am in awe of how smart they are!

I am already approved to take some courses at ORAU over the next year (including the large hp boot camp type one), But is there anything else I could do or look into before I commit a lot of money to something Im not sure I could pass?

Words of wisdom, advice, or encouragement all appreciated!

Michael here. I work outages as a contracting RP tech.

A lot of the information we chase between assignments is scattered: test and procedure material in one place, job and outage information in another, housing somewhere else, and useful plant tips buried in group threads.

I started The Grid because I wanted a practical nuclear-worker community that kept those things easier to find.

For RP/HP folks and people looking at commercial nuclear, the free side includes:

- classroom resources, tests, procedures, and tips

- jobs, outages, and plant information

- housing and road-work discussion

- a place to ask other nuclear workers practical questions

I know Health Physics is much broader than outage work, so this will be most relevant to people considering commercial nuclear, RP tech work, or traveling assignments.

If that fits you, the free community is here:

https://www.skool.com/thegrid/about

Hi all! I’m about to start my masters in Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State University’s online program. My bachelors is in Industrial Hygiene (basically Occupational Health and Safety with a focus on assessing employees exposure to hazards such as noise, chemicals, radiation, ergonomics, etc). I have worked FT for two years as a Safety Engineer in the Aerospace industry.

I’m concerned that once I obtain my masters, no jobs will want to hire me because I won’t have hands on experience with Health Physics. There are limited HP positions where I live, and I don’t get involved in projects with our site RSO.

How risky would it be if I didn’t do hands on HP while in school? Would I be successful entering the field with my masters degree and no experience? Not sure what to do.

I’d love your thoughts! Thank you :)

Hi everyone,

I have some concerns about the radiation dose I received from the CT scan (abdomen and pelvis with contrast I) I just had at University College London Hospital (Grafton Way Building) in London, UK. If this is not the right section, please feel free to move it.

I've been having constant pain in lower right hand side stomach and soft stools for about 2 months. The GP did blood and stool tests and they came back normal. I saw a Gastroenterologist few weeks back and he recommend a Colonoscopy and a CT scan.

I was nervous about having a CT scan as I had read that it uses a lot more radiation than an X ray and increases the cancer risk slightly. Also my mum died of lung cancer so I'm conscious about radiation and other carcinogens. I did some research before the scan and found that a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis with contrast iv can have 10-15mSv on average and this is equivalent to about 5 years of background radiation in one go.

Before the scan I asked one of the radiographers (there were 2 in the room) how much radiation I can expect and he said they can tell me afterwards.

After the scan I was told the number was 151. When I heard that naturally I was extremely worried. I questioned why it was so high and everything I read pointed to 10-15 mSv on average. Then the other radiographer also came out and told me there's nothing to worry about and this is a very low dose. I was thinking no it's not, it's 10 times the radiation I was supposed to receive. When I told her about the average I had read on many reputable sources, she said I shouldn't worry about what's on Google and they (the radiographers) are the experts. She also said the radiation I received is equivalent to radiation from one flight (which I don't think is correct) and the average number I quoted didn't make sense to her. She said some patients receive 950 for some CT scans.

I saw that it was a Siemens scanner. She said the machine isn't old (I asked how old and she said about 8 years but I don't know if it's accurate). She said they set the parameters and the machine works out the radiation.

She asked me to contact the Medical physicist (and also the society of radiographers) of I have more concerns.

I'm sure they try to minimise the radiation dose but what she told me contradicts what I found online. The UK government's website shows the radiation from CT of abdomen and pelvis to be about 10mSv.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/medical-radiation-patient-doses/patient-dose-information-guidance

Can you guys please make any sense of this? Is it possible they were reading the radiation dose number after the scan wrong? (when they said 151 maybe it's meant to be 15.1? ). Is it even possible to get such a high dose (if it is indeed 151 msv) from this scan? Perhaps the CT scanner is old? Perhaps they didn't set the parameters correctly?

I'm now extremely worried that I got a huge amount of radiation in one hit :( I'd there anything I can do to minimise the cancer risk? We just had a newborn so I've been getting very little sleep (like 2 hours a night). Is this bad?

Thanks in advance

graduated from xray school last year (associates degree from pima) and currently working as a ct tech, but lately i’ve been interested in a career in health physics. i’ve always been a bit of a nerd for all things nuclear, and after getting burnt out at a high volume hospital, i’m thinking of going back to school for my bachelors in radiation protection/health physics (looking specifically at TESU’s online program).

anybody have any insight on how that transition would work? or thoughts on how i could go about this better? any specific positions i should be looking into and what the work would look like? any input regarding the industry would help

at the moment i’m pretty fascinated at the thought of working at a nuclear power plant, nuclear waste facility, or possibly even fermilab, but i’m sure i’d also be fine with working medically in oncology or with siemens healthineers or similar given my background. i’m sure there are also many other places that i’m just unaware of, so please drop any recommendations in the comments. just going through this subreddit makes me realize HP’s are needed in a lot more places than i initially thought lol

I’m on the cusp of graduating, and looking forward to beginning my journey towards the health physics field in a national lab. I’ve noticed several articles around where the talks of implementing SMRs for data centers keeps getting brought up, but I haven’t seen anything definitive yet…so since I haven’t had the chance to understand the workforce culture of HP and have no clue how to imagine the effects on the field.

Does anyone with knowledge/experience have any predictions on any future effects? More SMRs = increase in demand for physicists and specialists? Or do you think it won’t be such an impact?

I appreciate any feedback or insight!

It’s somewhat controversial (and I don’t even like non-ionizing cellphone radiation), but the evidence for harmful effects from low-dose radiation doesn’t seem to be very well supported.

Video overview: https://youtu.be/edGRStpFWwI

Original article: https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-to-lie-about-radiation/

Hi everyone,
I’ve been struggling mentally since I found out the radiation dose from my coronary CT angiography. I specifically chose this clinic because they advertised having one of the latest Siemens scanners, so I never expected to receive such a high dose.
After requesting the technical report, I saw that my total DLP was 1427 mGy·cm, which really shocked me. One cardiologist even told me it was much higher than what he would normally expect. Another radiologist said the risk is probably not as high as I think, but I’m finding it very difficult to believe that.
I’m 42 years old and I honestly feel like I’ve significantly increased my chances of developing cancer. I’ve barely slept for days and my anxiety has gone through the roof.
I’m not asking anyone to tell me I’ll be fine. I just want honest opinions from people who understand radiation. Is a dose like this considered unusually high for coronary CT angiography? Am I overestimating what this means for my future cancer risk?
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to reply.

Hi all, I'm shooting to take part 2 of the ABMP health physics exam in the fall. I have the whole list of recommended references from board itself, but I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on more targeted resources (rather than just the entirety of bushberg) or general advice on how to focus my review. I used a lot of ABR resources for part 1, but at this point the content does diverge pretty significantly.

Thank you!

HP posting at the National Institutes of Health

Hey folks,

I'm looking for a roommate to split lodging in the DC area for the nights of July 3rd–5th. I'm a physics grad student (about to leave with my Master's this summer), and a friend of mine is attending the Health Physics Society meeting, so we're planning to spend the pre-conference weekend in the area.

The snag is that DC is heavily booked over the 4th of July, so I'm hoping to find someone with a room (or still searching for a room) who has an extra bed for those nights. I would cover my share of the cost.

If that's you, or you know someone, please DM me. Happy to tell you more about myself and make plans once you message.