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How to Become a Medical Physicist
A medical physicist is not a doctor, however; they are instrumental in ensuring quality and safety as it applies to various types of radiation a patient is exposed to due to tests or cancer treatments. In this position, you are in charge of ensuring all the medical equipment that promotes radiation is working properly and that the radiology technicians are properly positioning patients to eliminate their risk for over-exposure to radiation. When it comes to cancer treatments, the medical physicist works with the prescribing doctor to determine the proper dose of radiation therapy for the patient as well as determining the best possible position for the patient to ensure they get the best possible results. When seeking information on how to become a medical physicist, you can expect both a college education including a graduate degree as well as a series of national accreditation testing to become certified.
How to Become a Medical Physicist
The first point in how to become a medical physicist involves the requirement of a college education. This requirement includes Masters degree which is required before you can complete any of the national tests. This Masters degree can be in virtually any field that pertains to any medical or science related field of study, as long as there is extensive training on anatomy and physiology as well as physics and biology. The only prerequisite to enter into your Masters program is that you already have a Bachelors degree in a related field and you have earned high grades throughout the undergraduate program. Both the undergraduate degree as well as the Masters degree can be taken through online colleges where the requirement of traveling to your courses every day is eliminated due to the fact that you will be participating in online courses through a virtual classroom delivered via the internet. Between the Bachelors and the online Masters degree, you can expect to spend about six years on your course work alone, after which, you may choose to participate in the series of national board examinations, which will complete the process of how to become a medical physicist.
Board Examinations
The final point in how to become a medical physicist involves a series of three intense examinations that will ensure future employers that you are ready to begin working in the radiology field. The first examination requires that you spend two years in a board approved residency program similar to that of what a doctor completes where you work in a healthcare facility in the radiology department under the close supervision of an experienced medical physicist. After you have completed the residency program, after this residency program is completed, you may take your first board examination which is a written type examination offered one time per year, usually in August or September. Once your first examination is complete, you will also be required to participate in an oral examination. This oral examination is offered just once per year around June. After you have passed the oral examination, you are certified as a licensed medical physicist and you are properly qualified to be employed in the position and earn a salary that typically has a median yearly salary of around $200,000.
Now you know how to become a medical physicist, you should take the opportunity and enroll in classes today. You can change your life today. Enroll now.
