Medical Handbook

Created by Captain Aidan Rackham on Wed Apr 15th, 2015 @ 12:59pm

Following a long line of healers and care-givers, Starfleet Medical is the group that ensures the health and well-being of Starfleet personnel. They are the doctors, nurses, technicians, and counselors charged with tending to all that need them. Whether you've stubbed your toe or developed a good case of PTSD, sickbay is most likely where you're headed.

With skill-sets ranging anywhere from microsurgery to psychiatry, a Starfleet medical officer is prepared to offer the highest excellence in treatment. Medical officers are often trained in several branches of medical sciences thanks to the extraordinary advances in technology and medicine. Working closely with science, the two departments are able to diagnose and often treat previously undiscovered conditions.

General Duties

  • Ensure the health of the crew through any means necessary, including suspending duty, preventative medicine and all courses of treatment
  • Diagnose and if need be classify new illnesses
  • Create and implement health plans for all crew and visitors including diet and exercise
  • Study and utilize new medical techniques and procedures as they come out
  • Utilize Operation for software and computer system technicians specializing in medical
  • Work with closely with Science to implement, test and tailor make treatment for patients with new needs/illnesses
  • Custom craft prosthetics and genetic altering with engineering
  • Quarantines with security/tactical
  • Search and rescue/medical emergency away teams

    Specializations

  • Diagnostics (biostatistics, clinical chemistry, cytogenetics, cytometry, hematology, histology, immunohistrochemistry immunology, microbiology, nuerophysology, pathology, radiology, tomography, ultrasonography)
  • Interdisciplinary (addiction, biochemistry, bioethics, biomechanics, biomedical engineering, biophysics, pharmacology, conservation medicine, dietetics, disaster medicine, hyperbaric, emporiatrics evolutionary, forensic, gender-based, laser, medical humanities, informatics, medical computer sciences, medical physics, medical sociology, nosology, nosokinetics, pain management, palliative, pharmacogenomics, rehabilitative, theraputics, veterinary)
  • Specialist (aerospace medicine, cardiology, critical care, dental, endocrinology, ethnobiology, gastroenterology, genetics, geriatrics, gynecology, hematology, hepatology, homeopathic, infectious disease, nephrology, neurology, ophthalmology, oncology, obstetrics, pediatrics, pulmonologist, pneumology, preventative medicine, respirology, rheumatology, sleep medicine, trauma [emergency medicine], xenobiology)
  • Surgeon (cardiovascular, colorectal, cosmetic, dermatological, exploratory, general, maxillofacial, micro, nano, orthopedic, otolaryngology, oncologic, ophthalmology, psychiatric, transplant, transporter, trauma, urological, vascular, pediatric
  • Psychiatry (Addiction, Biological, Child or Adolescent, Community, Cross-Cultural, Emergency, Forensic, Geriatric, Liaison, Military, Nueropsyciatry, Social, Xenopsychiatry)

    Notes
  • Should a counselor not be present the job of maintaining crew mental health rests on the shoulders of the CMO.
  • As medicine is considered a science smaller vessels tend to mingle versatile crew that are cross trained to assist in both medical and clinical fields.
  • Hippocratic Oath and Nightingale Oath are the groundwork of every Starfleet medical officer's ethics/policies. It is up to each individual how they follow it and what they choose to do to uphold it.

    Hippocratic Oath (Updated from Old Earth)

    I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
    I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
    I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
    I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
    I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.
    I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know.
    Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given to me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
    I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
    I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
    I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
    If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

    Nightingale Oath (Updated from Old Earth)

    With full knowledge of the responsibilities I am undertaking, I pledge to care for my patients with all of the knowledge, skills, and understanding that I possess, without regard to race, color, creed, politics, or social status.
    I will spare no effort to conserve meaningful life, to alleviate suffering, and to promote health.
    I will refrain from any action which might be harmful to the quality of life or health of those I care for.
    I will respect, at all times, the dignity and religious beliefs of patients under my care, and hold in professional confidence all the personal information entrusted to me.
    I will endeavor to keep my professional knowledge and skills at the highest level and give my support and cooperation to all members of the healthcare team.
    With full awareness of my qualifications and limitations, I will do my utmost to maximize the potential of the nursing profession and to uphold and advance its standards.


    Categories: General Reference

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