Medical Reform - New Guidelines, Qualifications, and Minimum Ages

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

@Senpai Jackboot

If a patient is outside of a character's experience range, i.e, a nurse is the only medical staff and someone is dying of internal bleeding - are they SAFE from being charged with neglect of duty for not trying to treat these severe injuries?

Basically, are characters that don't specialize in advanced treatment (chemist, nurse, paramedic, EMT) absolved of any guilt of malpractice if a patient dies because they're not overqualified enough to treat? I could see Security trying to press this.

 

idk i can't speak for every situation. All I can say is that you will be able to tell them what you are and are not qualified to do. That's where the rp comes in.

[Biabri]

I don't particularly see why someone should be charged for not doing something they aren't qualified to do... That doesn't really make any sense, at all. Malpractice would be attempting to do it and failing, in my eyes.

[Conservatron]

On the contrary, medical responders are legally obligated to NOT push beyond their training. They must do everything up to and including their highest level of training, overstepping opens you up to massive liability and will certainly get you fired by corporate, even if you succeeded in saving a life while doing so.

At least in 2017, maybe laws will be different in aurora time

[Skull132]

I don't particularly see why someone should be charged for not doing something they aren't qualified to do... That doesn't really make any sense, at all. Malpractice would be attempting to do it and failing, in my eyes.

 

The real world works in fun ways. To say that it's malpractice only if it fails is actually very bad: it implies that justice is dependent on the end, not the means. So it'd be fine to kill a man if he's going to, for example, murder someone. To avoid logical idiocity like that, the means are regulated regardless of the end. As such, it is very clearly malpractice even if the man's life is saved.

[TrickingTrapster]

So, to clarify, if for example there were no surgeons aboard, and the CMO needs some advanced brain surgery because the chemist got arrested and is the reason for that trauma. You have an older character that is a virologist today because, they are trained in virology, surgery and some other stuff and there was a surgeon earlier but they went to cryo. Are you then allowed to do this surgery, because your character had this training, or will you be arrested for doing it because it's not within your job responsibilities?

[Guest Complete Garbage]

So, to clarify, if for example there were no surgeons aboard, and the CMO needs some advanced brain surgery because the chemist got arrested and is the reason for that trauma. You have an older character that is a virologist today because, they are trained in virology, surgery and some other stuff and there was a surgeon earlier but they went to cryo. Are you then allowed to do this surgery, because your character had this training, or will you be arrested for doing it because it's not within your job responsibilities?

 

If they have an updated medical/surgical license and are qualified to practice, then it's not an issue at all, as long as they're not superseding the responsibilities of other staff.

[DrHobo]

Yeah if the character has the training and background it should be fine regardless of their current job if seriously understaffed. In practice it can be difficult other than just lack of access because you are seen as your job title rather than your character's skills and training. I have a character who plays a scientist most the time but they used to work for Zeng-Hu developing cloning tech, so as somebody that spent years building, maintaining and upgrading clonepods they should be able to use the actual machines however the RP drawback is they have no bedside manner to deal with the freshly cloned and their possible mental disorder and probably won't go and stick them in cryo. However if folks see a scientist in the cloning laboratory, they're gonna say LOOC that it's a greyzone at best.

A virologist may be a full doctor and so may have been trained and accredited in emergency surgery, they'll definitely be trained in anatomy (I did gross human anatomy for 2 years myself IRL as a biomed scientist with medical students, learning every single muscle fiber and nerve actually contributed to my change to the more molecular sciences it was so boring). Studying viral encephalitis may mean they know some functional neuroanatomy for the brain surgery! If it was a very long time ago, maybe they could get a pAI medical expert system to walk them through it? Failing that, why not emote searching for guidance on your PDA while checking the wiki?

If anything goes wrong or things really get called into question then the character's experience and training could be checked by the HoP or IntSec and if they've not got it in their employment history then it would be an issue.

[Jibreel]

This reform presupposes a balkanization of the medical field that just isn't realistic. It sounds a lot more like what non-doctors think the medical field is like than what the medical field is actually like. DrHobo gave an excellent explanation above.

One of the big issues, though, is that there's very little for medical to do beyond surgery--most everything else is either quickly fatal or easily remedied with a visit to cryo-land. I don't see chemistry get nearly as much use as it deserves on this server.

[AlternativeAlias]

As someone who plays a chemist with two characters, I disagree about chemistry. I find it quite a fun job to do! That said, it's good to have MD or Residency in your character employment history too, as you can then at least also involved yourself in basic tasks such as using health analysers on new patients, scanning them, administering non-surgical treatments etc. It lets you get involved in little jobs around Medical without taking the piss.

But your experience may vary.

Personally, I like the general changes to Medical. I've altered one of my characters to better fit these new guidelines, and I think it's help me take a more focused approach to what I want my character to aim towards in their career.

I *like* the fact that the new guidelines limit what characters can do. Having "jack of all trades" medical characters who can do almost every single job is so meta and powergamey, and this helps to prevent it.

[Munks]

Does hardsuit removal necessarily need to be locked to MD and Surgeon-level expertise? It seems like it just needs enough experience with hardsuits to know where to cut to release the suit pressure seals. If I recall correctly, it can even be done with a welder/plasma cutter, which seems to indicate it was meant to be accessible to engineers and miners and the like.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

It's not just welding or sawing something, it's welding and sawing something off of a person, which requires skill to do safely. Making it a basic surgery would also allow Emergency Physicians to do it as well, and I felt that it would be best to leave it as an advanced surgery.

[DarthAussie]

Are these ages the strictly absolute rules, or are they mostly guidelines?

[Scheveningen]

Absolute. Characters must abide by the age requirement. Offenders will generally be dealt with case-by-case.

[Conspiir]

I meant to ask before, but was too socially awkward to necro the thread myself. So.

These rules make perfect sense for humans, I'm totally there with you.

But how do these rules change (if really at all) for Dionaea, IPCs, and older Skrell?

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Exceptions, rules, etc, for aliens all apply. You don't need to be a 30 year old IPC, especially since that's impossible. It's all the normal stuff. If you're uncertain about a particular case, ask your local loredev for more information!

[Qu1nnd0lyn]

So I'm a bit confused.

Based on the start of this post (Sorry, I'm not reading 4 pages of replies), there is not really a position for new players who literally have no experience with medical to join in.

The medical resident implies that the character knows some things about medical.

I don't.

The EMT implies that the character knows something about medical.

I don't.

If I am going to play this game, I don't want to spend all day reading guides and memorizing just to be able to log in and play. It seems like it should be a "learn on the job" process. That's why I liked the Intern option. It gave people like me a chance to come in and say "I know nothing, teach me" and I really mean it. It's not a new character, it's not me being dumb. I have never learned this.

My honest opinion is to make a job role that is basically like the assistant/visitor. It'd be an Intern, and you can select which section you want to go into. Make sure to include ALL jobs, cause even things like Cooks and Botanists need to be taught. It'd help me at least, and it could help people learn if they want to learn more about specific jobs with a character, or create a new one for that role.

I know it's meant to be realistic, but I didn't come here for this game to be realistic. It's a futuristic space station with aliens and space bears. I want to enjoy learning funny chemicals and plants and races.

That's my thoughts. - Quinn

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

So I'm a bit confused.

Based on the start of this post (Sorry, I'm not reading 4 pages of replies), there is not really a position for new players who literally have no experience with medical to join in.

The medical resident implies that the character knows some things about medical.

I don't.

The EMT implies that the character knows something about medical.

I don't.

If I am going to play this game, I don't want to spend all day reading guides and memorizing just to be able to log in and play. It seems like it should be a "learn on the job" process. That's why I liked the Intern option. It gave people like me a chance to come in and say "I know nothing, teach me" and I really mean it. It's not a new character, it's not me being dumb. I have never learned this.

My honest opinion is to make a job role that is basically like the assistant/visitor. It'd be an Intern, and you can select which section you want to go into. Make sure to include ALL jobs, cause even things like Cooks and Botanists need to be taught. It'd help me at least, and it could help people learn if they want to learn more about specific jobs with a character, or create a new one for that role.

I know it's meant to be realistic, but I didn't come here for this game to be realistic. It's a futuristic space station with aliens and space bears. I want to enjoy learning funny chemicals and plants and races.

That's my thoughts. - Quinn

 

Thank you for your feedback. I'll see about getting the medical intern role re-inserted to let new players get their bearings.

[ben10083]

[mention]Qu1nnd0lyn[/mention] In the meantime, I HIGHLY recommend as a assistant a HoP (Or captain if one isn't there) to make you a "Medical Assistant". This will allow you to be taught how to be medical from the ground up.

[Guest]

Can i suggest a trainee technician job title for the EMT branch?

[Korinra]

I think it makes sense to get good at medical as a resident, then once you're qualified to work by yourself, you can opt into being an EMT. That just makes more sense since EMTs deal with emergency situations only, and a trainee isn't the best candidate for that.