• Question: Have any of you worked in medicine? Would you ever consider it, and what would be the available jobs with your qualifications in physics?

    Asked by anon-201901 to Sophia, Sarah, Meirin, George, Emily, Andy on 8 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Emily Lewis

      Emily Lewis answered on 8 Mar 2019:


      I did a weeks work experience at a hospital on a cancer ward. Nuclear physics ties quite well into radiotherapy for cancer treatment.
      A physics degree with a focus in nuclear would allow you to train as a medical clinical scientist if you’re interested in medical physics.

      But that’s about as much as I know. I think Sophia and Sarah could tell you a bit more!

    • Photo: Sarah O'Sullivan

      Sarah O'Sullivan answered on 8 Mar 2019:


      I spent a few years working in operating theatres as a theatre healthcare assistant and as a supervisor processing blood donations into different products for the NHS Blood and transplant service. I’d definitely consider going back into a medical setting maybe as radiation protection specialist, possibly a medical physicist role (they tend to work in radiotherapy or MRI and imaging) or in nuclear medicine (giving radioactive medicines to patients and measuring where it goes). The Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine would be a great place for information

    • Photo: Meirin Oan Evans

      Meirin Oan Evans answered on 8 Mar 2019:


      Many of my close friends, who completed the same master’s degree in physics as me, are now working as medical physicists. As part of my PhD I have to complete a 6 month placement working on something other than my particle physics research. I’m strongly considering doing this work placement in medical physics.

    • Photo: Sophia Pells

      Sophia Pells answered on 8 Mar 2019:


      I haven’t worked in medicine but my work is very related to medicine. Nuclear medicine departments in hospitals need a lot of physicists to work behind the scenes to make sure patients are getting the best treatment they can. I’m thinking about maybe doing a NHS scientist training scheme after my PhD to work in a hospital.

    • Photo: Andy Buckley

      Andy Buckley answered on 9 Mar 2019:


      I worked doing admin for a GP surgery while at school, but that doesn’t really count! I’m not at all qualified to work in medicine directly, but could turn my hand to things like health data analysis and modelling (which is very important when you have an organisation like the NHS serving tens of millions of people) or developing medical scanning devices and image processing. Those are among the big areas that people like me go into if they leave particle physics research, and it’s good that we can have a positive social impact by training people with skills that medical science needs.

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