Nursing

A thread of 2 messages, 7 January 1993 to 11 January 1993, in the order they were sent.

#5091 Nursing

PCD · 7 January 1993

In reviewing the draft charchter rules, a thought occured
to me concernign nursing (I'm not one, but I hav several
friends who are).

1) the idea of "Nurse" being one "rank" on the Medical
profession list is somewhat absurd. Nursing is a specialized
profession which has a different set of tasks to perform.
While the sorts of structures that exist today might be
modified heavily (though other trav professions don't make this
assumption) it would seem that using the contemporary term
is confusing.

2) the medical cascade doesn't really contain any skills
appropriate ot a nurse. Trauma ops (?) is somewhat appropriate,
and a level of diagnosis, but not actual surgury. Unless,
"level-1" surgery perhaps is a first-aid/assistant/lower level
sort of thing.

Under MT, I had considered making a nurse profession, or
setting requirements to qualify for being a nurse. Medical-2
(being inbetween Medic and Doctor) was appropriate. The only thing
I though really came close to the rest of a Nurses skills was
Steward. I note that steward has been removed from the skill
list (correct?) Something like it should be on for nurses.

With the specialization/cascade of the medical skill, perhaps,
Pharmacology (not really chemistry or biology) should be an
additional skill. Perhaps a nurse would have it at level 2 (in
the old system, at least) and level 3 for a doctor (can prescribe
medicine). Nurses spend alot of time memorizing the effects of
various drugs when they are in school :-).

Nursing really should be it's own profession, or at least not the
same track as a doctor (perhaps nurses would be on the "enlisted"
track, and doctors on the "officer" track). BTW, how would
military medical personell be handled?

One could have
e1 trainee (physical therapist ?)
e2 Nurse
e3 Nurse who'se been to Grad school ( I forget what these are)
e4 Nurse Practicioner
01 Intern
02 Resident
03 Doctor
04 Surgeon
05 Cheif Surgeon

or something like that. I noted the rank structure seems to have
a desire to fill in every rank from 1-6. Why is this necessary/desirable?

Part of the real problem is that (on the nurse track as I've deliniated
it) there is not always an inexorible progression of rank. Many nurses
are quite content to be nurses and not advance, and they get their
priveledges by seniority, etc. A nurse only haveing "doctor" as her/his
end goal is silly though. I submit this partially also in the interest
of not discouraging women from traveller and role-playing by having
misrepresentations of a (still) female dominated profession.

paul duggan
[email removed]

#5103 Re: Nursing

[unnamed sender] · 11 January 1993 · reply to #5091

>1) the idea of "Nurse" being one "rank" on the Medical
>profession list is somewhat absurd.

I agree.
>
>2) the medical cascade doesn't really contain any skills
>appropriate ot a nurse. Trauma ops (?) is somewhat appropriate,
>and a level of diagnosis, but not actual surgury. Unless,
>"level-1" surgery perhaps is a first-aid/assistant/lower level
>sort of thing.

Isn't there something called "surgical assistant?"  Might that be it?

>Nursing really should be it's own profession, or at least not the
>same track as a doctor (perhaps nurses would be on the "enlisted"
>track, and doctors on the "officer" track). BTW, how would
>military medical personell be handled?

Well, my sister was a nurse in the Air Force, and when she graduated
nursing school, she joined the AF (perhaps they were paying for her
schooling, not sure) and was commisioned a lieutenant.  She retired as
a major, so calling nurses 'enlisted' and doctors 'officers' is not
accurate to _this_ time period.

I agree that nursing should be its own career path.  Perhaps give a both
a +dm to switch careers to the other?  A nurse might want to advance to
doctor and if someone washes out of med school, but is set on a medical
career, nursing school is an alternative.
>
> nurse/doctor career path deleted....
>
Here is my proposed path....

                           e1 trainee
                           e2 ambulence attendant
                           e3 medic
                           e4 EMT (emergency medical technician)
            _______________|____________________
            |                                  |
           01 Nurse trainee                   01 Intern
           02 LPN (licensed practical nurse)  02 Resident
           03 RN (registered nurse)           03 Doctor
           04 Floor nurse                     04 Surgeon
           05 Chief Nurse                     05 Chief Surgeon
>
In my path, the first 4 grades (e1-e4) would be pre-med in civilian life
and enlisted personnel in the military.  If you recieve a promotion from
enlisted to officer, you would have to state which altenate path to
follow henceforeword (either nurse or doctor).

My reasons for having both paths start the same is I assume that both
nurses and doctors recieve _some_ of the same training (possibly wrong).
I'm pretty sure that RN is higher that LPN, but since I am not a nurse,
I'll accept being corrected by someone who knows better.

>paul duggan
>[email removed]
>
- --------
Paul Baughman    phb100 @ psuvm.psu.edu

In the dark, no one can hear the color of your eyes

Odie-code: (n) Any piece of useless code that slobbers all over your
           program.      --Steve Schrader