Fuse Medical Roles and Detach Medical from the Real Job of Medical Doctor

[Skull132]

I did some word-play around the titles to rid ourselves of everyone being a technician or a specialist. The PR itself is here.

Still listening to suggestions if anyone has anything better to offer.

[Snakebittenn]

I'd suggest Triage Technician instead of Rescue Technician. Then we could make the focus of the role slightly wider than 'you go out, get injured, and that's all you do'

[wowzewow]

I prefer Medical Doctor over Medical Physician.

Also, how about Surgical Practicioner? Rolls off the tongue a bit better, with the medical context. (also better that we don't keep reusing technician and specialist.)

Maybe replace Rescue Technician with Recovery Technician? like, recovery of personnel and equipment AND recovery as in health. sounds cool, no?

 

Edited August 2, 2020 by wowzewow

[Skull132]

Okay so. I did some thunking and thinking.

It was pointed out to me that a use-case for some of the alt-titles was to play a doctor character that would have no responsibility to touch surgery ever. Sooo. I removed surgery access from "Medical Technician", which used to be "Medical Doctor". Basically: the Med Tech would be your general doctor-type-person, who's responsible for healing a stubbed toe and whatever else can be done with cryo and drugs and bandaids. And surgeon is the guy who goes around diddling your internal organs, should the Med Tech be unable to help.

This does still leave us with the issue of Surgeon being akin to a super-doctor, buuuuuut. There's no solid answer to this, unfortunately.

Re: triage technician. Eh. The connotation attached to the word "Triage" typically implies a really bad situation***. Plus, it leaves it unclear that the dude's primary job is to get out there and help people in a dire situation. A rescue tech helping inside the medbay should make sense no matter how you look at it, specially when push comes to shove.

*** Yes, I know that every patient that enters a hospital is triaged regardless of the actual severity of the situation around them. But not many people know this factoid.

[NewOriginalSchwann]

Why did you choose to cut medical resident instead of medical intern?

[Skull132]

10 minutes ago, NewOriginalSchwann said:

Why did you choose to cut medical resident instead of medical intern?

Because I really don't care for the difference and "Intern" makes the purpose of the role as a learning one more clear.

Addendum: also because "Medical Resident" was born out of one of the arguments that we're trying to avoid. There was a spiel about how medical interns don't exist or should be reclassified as resident yadda, which is the entire reason for why we got the title in the first place. "Medical Intern" was actually the first learner role we implemented.

[The7thLain]

From looking at the code of the PR on the issue, it looks as of the combined doctor equivalent has OR access removed entirely. Is this necessary and intended or is it a mistake?

[Skull132]

Just now, TheBurninSherman said:

From looking at the code of the PR on the issue, it looks as of the combined doctor equivalent has OR access removed entirely. Is this necessary and intended or is it a mistake?

https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/14668-fuse-medical-roles-and-detach-medical-from-the-real-job-of-medical-doctor/?do=findComment&comment=139044

[The7thLain]

Thank you, @Skull132, I seemed to have missed that in my catch-up read on the thread.

[The7thLain]

As for a naming suggestion, if we are wanting to stray away from a "doctor" role specifically, "Medical Specialist" or "Healthcare Specialist" would be better than "technician" in my opinion, I in fact, quite like the sound of "Healthcare Specialist." A technician is often associated with someone who works with equipment or machines. A health caregiver, no matter the context of a doctorate or not should give the impression that they work with people and individuals, not machines, and give the impression of such a thing in the job title.

Edited August 2, 2020 by TheBurninSherman

[Skull132]

Ye but. "Med Tech" sounds sci-fi as hell. While not being draggy or otherwise eough. "Go see the med tech when you're done." It has a good mouthfeel.

[The7thLain]

15 minutes ago, Skull132 said:

Ye but. "Med Tech" sounds sci-fi as hell. While not being draggy or otherwise eough. "Go see the med tech when you're done." It has a good mouthfeel.

Perhaps it may be my real-world preconceptions influencing this, but when I hear med tech I hear someone being told to pull a switch or watch an X-Ray come up on a screen. Besides, we already have four, formerly five with the now defunct Engine Technician, other roles on station with the word "technician" in the title. Cargo Technician, Drill Technician, Atmospheric Technician, and Forensic Technician. It may sound Sci-Fi(ish, kinda), but it also sounds really samey to the stuff we have already and it lacks variety, in my opinion.

I think that we can be more creative than just slapping "technician" onto the end of everything. 

Edited August 2, 2020 by TheBurninSherman
Added part about creativity.

[geeves]

5 minutes ago, Skull132 said:

It has a good mouthfeel.

never speak these words again

anyway, despite my hate for the word technician creeping into roles, which i am guilty of doing (drill techs bae), med tech does have a good ring to it

[Chada1]

It might be an option if we want to make the surgeon less of a super doctor to give them more restrictions from the non-surgical equipment, such as the medical storages and the like. The same places I assume Chemist also has no access to?

Also, medical resident is a massive real life parallel, intern isn't. If we want to avoid arguments about the real life profession we shouldn't keep resident.

[SgtSammac]

Mmm. Been holding off on posting on the forums. Because I haven’t really been able to elaborate. 

Personally I think merging the various titles will help more than hinder at this stage. 

I.e EMT -> Doctor/Surgeon/Pharmacist-> CMO 

I’m not too fussed whether we keep current title theme or “sci fi” them up a bit? *shrugs* 

Perhaps 

- Medical Trainee/Intern
- Medical/Rescue Technician (Paramedic)
- Medical Officer (Doctor) 
- surgeon 
- Chief Medical Officer

I’m not really sure what title we could use for a mental health specialist which isn’t the Psych/Psychiatrist that people want to do away with. 

Just have general doctor title. Let people chose through RP whether or not they’re a trauma specialist, general practitioner, consultant, Etc.

Edited August 3, 2020 by SgtSammac

[MoondancerPony]

19 hours ago, Skull132 said:

Re: triage technician. Eh. The connotation attached to the word "Triage" typically implies a really bad situation***. Plus, it leaves it unclear that the dude's primary job is to get out there and help people in a dire situation. A rescue tech helping inside the medbay should make sense no matter how you look at it, specially when push comes to shove.

*** Yes, I know that every patient that enters a hospital is triaged regardless of the actual severity of the situation around them. But not many people know this factoid.

One could say this interpretation is fine; a triage technician that goes out to people who are in bad situations and rescues them, and can also step in and work in the medbay in situations where they're needed. Triage, in addition to implying a mass-casualty situation, can also imply prehospital/field work.

If the intent were to say that they triage every patient that comes in, they would be a triage nurse, but the point is to move it away from IRL jobs.

Therefore, I think "Triage Technician" properly connotes that the job is typically for providing first aid outside of the medbay, or in mass-casualty situations within the medbay. They can provide other care within their knowledge/means, but the main intent of the job gets across well.

That said, the important thing is just making it so EMTs don't have to sit in the Gremlin Cave whenever there's not someone bleeding out in maint somewhere.

[Bear]

As an actual medical professional, I would love to see this change. Trying to pull a real life take on a game where x medicine make the bleedies stop and y medicine makes you breathe more betterer will never work. I personally find the current titles make it immersion shattering and overly complex in all the wrong areas. Why? Because modern medicine is an overly complex and massively inflated beast with naunces that would take me far too long to put into words but those reasons are all missed here in this interpretation. A doctor would never do x. A nurse would never do y. The reality of what triage actually is and the different ways it can be applied beyond mass casualty or field work to say, a simple clinic. Prescriptions and scope of practice. Invasive procedures vs. Surgical procedures.. and that isn't even the tip of the iceberg  A simplification and return to scifi-esque roles is long overdue for a scifi game.

I do not care what the role name is. Biologist. Specialist. Technician. Whatever. I would simply like to see this change. 

[Faris]

28 minutes ago, Bear said:

A simplification and return to scifi-esque roles is long overdue for a scifi game.

The post as a whole is very well put. I just want to echo this part especially. I can see the attraction to proper medical roles based on equivalences but just leave that behind and establish something fresh and novel I feel would benefit us much more. 

I'm positive characters can easily be migrated from the current medical jobs to the new medical jobs so that is also not an issue. 

[Skull132]

Just as an update. The PR isn't dead and nor am I. My week's just busy. I'll get into reading the new feedback and uploading a tweak next week, promise!

[Sparky_hotdog]

I think this is needed, though I don't think that's really up for debate. As Bear said, striving for realism in titles in a game where medicine is so advanced almost removes realism. It doesn't feel right to have such complicated titles for spess jobs. Simpler job titles would also make medical less intimidating to newcomers, as it would allow them to easily see the roles they can choose to specialise into. 

Personally, I prefer Medical Officer over Technician as a sci-fi name, both due to the less repetitive name, and the link to the CMO's title as well. As for the merging of the learner roles, thank goodness. Though I do hope the expectation of the role will be closer to the resident now, with the character having actually completed medical school. Mostly because if someone even starts their "internship" halfway though their medical degree, they're likely spending 3 years in the role before they become a doctor proper, which is a long time.