Sweaterkittens

Great guide mate, we can always use more competency in the medical department. I have a question in regards to this bit: Why do you insist on reviving before operating instead of after? I've had patients come in about an inch from death, with a billion damage in all types, every bone shattered, and internal bleeding in eight different places, no blood, ruptured lung etc. It's sometimes genuinely almost impossible to keep them stabilized due to the severe internal injuries, organ damage, and hemorrhaging that needs to be fixed before their vitals can get back up (this is especially true if it's early in the round and things like Perfluorodecalin aren't available yet.) In my experience it feels like it's often better to just operate on the body, while you don't need anesthetic (especially if Hydrocodone isn't available yet), their vitals aren't tanking and requiring constant attention, and then you can just defibrillate them back into green once you've fixed all the internal injuries. Granted, if they're around the 4 minute 30 second mark you obviously want to defib asap, but the five minute grace period for defibs seems SUPER lenient, and doing surgery on a body for a minute feels more efficient than struggling with anesthetic and stabilizing interventions for a longer period. I'm just curious as to what your thoughts are on that.

Thanks for all the quick feedback! Just to be clear, I too really enjoy setting up the brig medical bay at roundstart. In fact, setting up my space is one of my favorite aspects of the job. However, it's the actual act of setting it up and organizing the space that I really love, not the banal errand that is going to medical to get the bare necessities. I like going to cargo (interacting with another department) to order a surgical crate and get it sent up there. I like getting a toolbox with a welder for self-repair and the tools needed to do IPC surgery. I like getting a duffel bag full of various edge-case chems and stuff to be almost entirely self-sufficient. The issue for me is that when you combine all of your personal roundstart tasks with samey errands like taking a freezer of blood and a defib, it can really add up, especially once you factor in actually performing your duties, conversation, RP, waiting, etc. I was just hoping to cut down on that a bit. Admittedly, I have no idea how difficult and/or code-intensive it would be to have a check like that, although TheYeetster brings up a good point in that it would have to be added to every map, which is a pain even if if Boxstation is played almost exclusively. I don't think there's any reasonable way to make the Brig Phys. spawn with a freezer, but they could start the round carrying a defib. Or, if people didn't think it was too much of a buff to sec, simply adding one to the Brig Phys. locker. I get the sense that a lone defib in sec wouldn't make a huge difference without an actual medical practitioner there to treat and stabilize patients, but I also haven't played sec seriously in AGES, so others may have to weigh in on that. My intention here is just to cut down on busywork a smidge, not entirely eliminate any sort of setup or expansion of the brigbay.

My only input here is that people are both saying that roundstart tools are OP, and others are saying that they're available everywhere so why put them in the IPC's starting box? If roundstart tools are OP, then why can I take a quick trip to tool storage (or a number of other places) and vend/get two welders and several stacks of cable coil within the first 30 seconds every round? I would imagine those things would be more difficult to secure if they were completely busted. Additionally, we're not talking about roundstart tools, we're talking about roundstart tool and cable coil. On top of that, there's already a horribly downgraded version of the welding tool - the emergency welding tool, which is pretty much awful at anything except light repairs, once. That seems perfect for a starting item. If roundstart tools aren't OP and are available everywhere, then why not simply include them so the beginning of every IPC round isn't "go grab these same two things"? What's the major opposition to including something that's so readily available, that it makes such a change effectively just a QoL one? I would only add that I don't think this tantamount to every human having brute/burn kits in their starting box. Those things are only available in advanced medkits and in medbay, while basic welders (not even emergency welders) and cable are practically ubiquitous. The difficulty in playing IPC doesn't come from not being able to heal yourself - in fact, that's one of the easier parts. It's the fact that you go into oldcrit the moment you encounter a stiff breeze, your limbs explode off like an old Bionicle, and the horrifyingly common EMP basically kills you.

Hello all! Brig Physician has quickly become one of my favorite medical roles. I've noticed, however, that there is a decent amount of busywork at the start of the round. Primarily, you will generally want to go and take a freezer full of blood products and a defibrillator, as Medbay has plenty of both and they're both important, basic medical tools. I typically also take a few other odds and ends such as spare splints, chems, etc. I have no problem with using my downtime to expand my area in meaningful ways, but having to spend time running the same banal errand every shift is a bit tiring. While the task itself doesn't take particularly long, it does when it's combined with the other things you typically do at roundstart, meaning I am often finding myself still doing "roundstart" things at 20-30 minutes into the round, when combined with basic RP with other crewmembers. My goal: For Brig Phys to not have to spend the first 10 minutes of the round going and grabbing blood and a defibrillator just so that the Brig Medical Bay has more than the absolute bare minimum. What I would like to avoid: Giving security a free mini medical bay. Completely negating the need for security to go to medical is not something that should be present at roundstart, every round. It should only be the basics. In fact, I would argue that without a Brig Physician on staff, this stuff shouldn't even be present there. Additionally, I understand that having things to do is not a bad thing. Doing basic organization, gathering specific items that you personally make use of, doing the basics for your job (setting up engine, cryo, etc.) are all important. However, I think there are many better goals for a Brig Physician to aim for, such as their personal kit, Body Scanner, full OR, cloning (as well as RP!) that give you a sufficient amount to do. My proposal: Add a check to see if a player has been selected for the role of Brig Physician at roundstart. If the check succeeds, add a defibrillator (and Hand Defibrillator?) and blood product freezer (with IV pole) to the brig medical area. This would eliminate two of the largest items you immediately seek out during any brig physician round, allowing you to focus on stocking your personal kit, and pursuing personal goals like gathering chems and expanding/enhancing your treatment area as you see fit. The roundstart check (if possible to implement) would ensure that security isn't getting extra medical equipment for free every round, unless there is a player filling that role (who would then likely go get that equipment right away anyway). I feel like this is a modest change that would improve the QoL of the Brig Physician role without being a big buff to security, or the role itself. Please let me know what you think! EDIT: I would like to add that the Brig Phys. locker is one of the few (only?) medical lockers that inexplicably doesn't contain a medical duffel bag, which would also be a welcome addition.