NOVEMber 2008 issue
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The Geo Beat
The Many Scopes of Geoscience
BY TOM SNEDDON, P.GEOL.
APEGGA Manager, Geoscience Affairs
What’s your scope of practice?
This simple question has become far more complex than ever before. At the bottom of APEGGA’s non-practicing declaration is the legal definition of the word practice, as it’s used in the Engineering, Geological and Geophysics Professions Act. Each of the three types of practice is precisely described to guide the public and all practicing professionals as to what can be expected from practitioners.
While legally precise, the scopes of practice do not really say too much about the broad areas of overlap among our professions. Petrophysics is practiced in about equal proportions by professional engineers, geologists and geophysicists. Some practitioners are very narrow in scope and fit nicely into the registered professional technologist (X) category, although trying to decide which X is appropriate — engineering, geology or geophysics — can be a challenge.
Hydrogeology is in the same boat as petrophysics, which explains why your humble scribe is the proud bearer of a master of science degree in water resources from the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Alberta. My committee consisted of the late Dr. Ernie Kanasewich, P.Geoph., from geophysics, Dr. Brian Stimpson, P.Eng., from mining engineering, and my supervisor, the late Dr. Larry Gerard, P.Eng., from civil.
The final vote was 2-1 for civil. I’m kidding, of course. The degree and its title were negotiated when I was accepted into the graduate water resources program. By its very nature
it is interdisciplinary.
I’m sure most of you whose primary focus is hydrogeology have run through a similar obstacle course and have an interesting set of experiences in getting to where you are today and why you pack the credentials that you do.
We could make a similar argument for paleontology, structural geology/tectonics, seismic data processing, and that most composite of all composites, environmental geoscience. Scope is clearly a much less objective term than the EGGP Act definition suggests.
Regulators are only concerned with ensuring that whatever you have declared to be your scope of practice — whether it be as broad as global tectonics or as narrow as application of a gamma-gamma tool to assist in defining porosity and permeability of limestone — you have the necessary education, training and experience to competently perform the work.
To be and stay competent, you also have the responsibility to maintain your technical competence in fighting trim by private, formal and informal study. We seek excellence in all we do, perfection not being a geoscience attribute. Seeking personal improvement implies some blood, a lot of sweat and many tears.
We do shed blood. Bush whacking, scree walking and paper cuts from maps all draw blood. Trust me — and trust my scars. The sweat part was covered in my last Geo Beat on field trips. The tears part come from the frustration of not seeing what others are seeing literally or through a veil of mathematics.
Now, two words for you older fellas and gals out there. Don’t quit. Quitting is also not a geoscience attribute.
Yes, you can declare yourself as a non-practicing member, but don’t. Stay active. It isn’t easy to reinstate active status should you want or need to, and a lifetime of experience will go to waste.
All the young folks coming up are desperately in need of mentors. Some are in firms that do not have any practicing professionals to supervise their work and in return for a couple of days effort you can keep their member-in-training time on course and the company’s permit to practice valid.
Keep coming out to APEGGA and technical society functions and share your knowledge, ask hard questions and continue to learn! Retirement is just another beginning.
One excuse for quitting your humble scribe hears frequently is: “I haven’t done any real geology in years. All I do now is management.” Management of the profession is the practice of the profession. Period. Full stop.
If you didn’t know how rocks work, you wouldn’t be CEO/CFO/COO or whatever. Your board and the shareholders trust you to run the company because you know how to read the rocks, the seismic displays and the logger’s notes, even if you haven’t done it yourself for a long time.
Your scope of practice is directing the development and deployment of professional and technical staff. You have the right to title and can proudly tell the world that you do; and in so doing can be trusted to behave ethically and professionally in all you do. That is no small thing in the recently revised world of investment we now live in.
In closing, here are a few Deep Thoughts for you to consider as the snow drifts around your doorstep and we consider the undisturbed vista of 2009.
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What is your scope of practice, then?
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Does your professional development plan reinforce it?
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Are you moving into new stuff that needs a deeper scientific understanding?
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Are you becoming obsolete or are you enhancing shareholder value (your personal shareholders being family, friends, colleagues, superiors, subordinates and co-workers)?
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Will all your knowledge and wisdom die with you, or is it going to carry on into the next generation of geoscientists?
Think about it.
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