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Eric Einspänner works as a medical physicist at Magdeburg University Hospital
Photo: Christian Morawe / UMMD
The start into working life is exciting, exhausting - and often completely different than planned. In the series
“My first year in the job”
young professionals tell how they experienced this time.
This time: Eric Einspänner, 26, is a medical physicist who helps hospitals to treat patients properly.
»I explain my job to my family like this: I am the physical half of the brain in medicine.
In nuclear medicine, where I work, there is a lot of sophisticated technology, for example a PET / CT that shows where radioactive markers accumulate in the body.
I check every day that these devices are working properly.
"I earn 4074 euros a month for a 40-hour week."
I knew early on that I wanted to do something with physics. When I was 18, I was in the MRI with a knee injury and was fascinated - I really wanted to understand how it worked. I then studied medical physics for a bachelor's and master's degree. Now, as a so-called medical physics expert in training, I am learning all the practical aspects of the profession from experienced colleagues. After two years, I'll be a medical physics expert, or MPE for short. There is no longer an exam for this.
I am currently working at the University Hospital in Magdeburg.
This is my second job after graduating.
I quit my first position at the University Medical Center in Göttingen because I couldn't do my doctorate there on the side, as I had imagined.
I earn 4074 euros a month for a 40-hour week.
I devote myself to my doctoral thesis in the evenings and in between when nothing else comes up.
Responsibility in cancer therapy
As an MPE in training, I am not yet allowed to make safety decisions on my own.
Nevertheless, I already have a responsibility because my colleagues trust me.
The doctors specify how much radiation dose should go into the tumor tissue, and I use the computer to calculate how this can be achieved.
After the therapy, I check whether the calculated dose has been delivered at the planned location.
"I also help if something happens, for example a syringe with radioactive material falls down."
One of my most important tasks is radiation protection - for the employees, the patients, their accompaniment and the environment.
I also help if something happens, for example a syringe with radioactive material falls down.
Then I'll be paged and organize the decontamination.
That means, I use a measuring device to test where the radioactive material has landed and cover the area with barrier tape.
Personnel trained for this purpose wipe up the radioactive puddle with a mop.
What to do with the shiny mop?
Of course, the contaminated mop cannot simply be disposed of in the household waste, we have special bins in the basement for this.
We store the things there until they no longer shine.
So that everyone knows what to do in such a situation, I train my department in radiation protection measures.
Before I leave nuclear medicine in the evening, I have to check my hands and feet in a radiation measurement box so that I don't carry any radiation outside.
I also accidentally had radioactive material on hand.
But I was able to wash it off with a special soap that is as rough as a peeling.
I'm not afraid, because I can very well assess that the risk is small - with the types of radiation that we are using here.
I know that my work does not increase my risk of cancer.
There is also time for research in the clinic
I spend most of the working hours in the office.
When there are no routine tasks, I do research.
I develop programs with which PET / CT images can be evaluated.
I also make this available to other researchers as open source code.
For my doctorate, I am researching how to get better images of liver tumors.
Breathing makes the liver move, while for a PET / CT one lies in the tube.
I can correct this movement afterwards in the recordings.
More episodes of "My first year in the job"
Career entry as a pharmacist: »I think it would be justified if we earned more« Recorded by Florian Gontek
Career entry as a nurse: "Lately we have had to fix more people" Recorded by Manuel Biallas
I am glad that I changed my job for my doctorate.
At the old clinic I would have had to organize it myself without support, there was no suitable care for me there.
A purely doctoral position was also out of the question for me.
Often you only get part-time jobs.
Now I have a doctoral supervisor who researches exactly in my area of interest.
In addition to the clinical routine, there is enough time for research.
The doctorate is my thing, because I am paid primarily for my work as a medical physicist.
The Radiation Protection Act secures the job of MPEs
I found the new position via the job portal of the German Society for Medical Physics (DGMP), and it worked immediately.
Every nuclear medicine in Germany has to employ medical physicists by law.
Here in my work group in Magdeburg there are six of us.
Generally there are more jobs than applicants.
When you're ready to move, it's easy to find a job.
And once you've completed the two years of training, the job is pretty much secure.
I think the profession is still too unknown for nuclear medicine to be practiced without us MPEs.
That's why I'm committed to young medical physics (jMP), the DGMP's junior association: I post my everyday work on Instagram and develop a podcast.
I'm doing my doctorate because I enjoy research, but also to be taken more seriously in the scientific world. "
Have you just started your career yourself and would like to tell us about it? Then write to us at
SPIEGEL-Start@spiegel.de
.
