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Rileydog · 03-25-2008, 12:29 AM

vik_tor115 - I probably did. If you want to PM me I can put you in touch with him, if you like. I am not sure where you are located - lifestyles and workstyles are often different in different regions. However, one of the reasons why I switched positions years ago was that my husband's hours were not predictable enough to help with daycare pickups, etc (and neither were mine at the time). However, his were impossible to control. Presently his physics group is rotating late shifts as they are treating patients more than 8 hours/day. This happens when there is a treatment machine down, when they are putting in a new machine, when there are more patients than they can treat in 8 hours, etc - it happens a lot in other words (smile). However, he is also on site early for certain procedures in the OR as well. He carries a beeper. He is not often called but it happens. Most of the time he just consults via the phone but sometimes he has to go in. If you are not going to do clinical work you may not deal with this but most Ph.Ds do a mix of both clinical and research - I am sure that varies with place as well. Of course, I am not a medical physicist so I am more of an observer.

We have many, many engineers in our family. I still don't know what all of them do. But, I just went through the college search process with son2 who believes wholeheartedly that he wants to be a mechanical engineer. I think it's also an exciting time to be an engineer from the presentations I saw, and the research he has done. I can tell you that salaries in med physics seem to be much better than in mech engineering but we did not want that to enter into his decision-making. My husband is still hoping that son2 will find his way to medical physics from engineering. Many of my husband's coworkers have navigated to med physics from different fields.

Congrats to you on the funding - that is wonderful. I am sorry if I am repeating myself. There aren't too many students on this board expressing interest in medical physics so the topic caught my eye - again!

03-25-2008, 12:29 AM	#8
Rileydog Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 507	vik_tor115 - I probably did. If you want to PM me I can put you in touch with him, if you like. I am not sure where you are located - lifestyles and workstyles are often different in different regions. However, one of the reasons why I switched positions years ago was that my husband's hours were not predictable enough to help with daycare pickups, etc (and neither were mine at the time). However, his were impossible to control. Presently his physics group is rotating late shifts as they are treating patients more than 8 hours/day. This happens when there is a treatment machine down, when they are putting in a new machine, when there are more patients than they can treat in 8 hours, etc - it happens a lot in other words (smile). However, he is also on site early for certain procedures in the OR as well. He carries a beeper. He is not often called but it happens. Most of the time he just consults via the phone but sometimes he has to go in. If you are not going to do clinical work you may not deal with this but most Ph.Ds do a mix of both clinical and research - I am sure that varies with place as well. Of course, I am not a medical physicist so I am more of an observer. We have many, many engineers in our family. I still don't know what all of them do. But, I just went through the college search process with son2 who believes wholeheartedly that he wants to be a mechanical engineer. I think it's also an exciting time to be an engineer from the presentations I saw, and the research he has done. I can tell you that salaries in med physics seem to be much better than in mech engineering but we did not want that to enter into his decision-making. My husband is still hoping that son2 will find his way to medical physics from engineering. Many of my husband's coworkers have navigated to med physics from different fields. Congrats to you on the funding - that is wonderful. I am sorry if I am repeating myself. There aren't too many students on this board expressing interest in medical physics so the topic caught my eye - again!