Chief Medical Officer

Created by Captain Cian D'Anvers on 01/08/2020 @ 4:40pm

Chief Medical Officer

The CMO’s duties fall under two main categories -- medical duties as well as Administrative duties.

Medical Duties

Prevention i.e. Physicals

Upon new assignment – Each person should receive a complete physical on two different occasions. Everyone is supposed to receive a yearly physical. Also, upon assignment to a new starship or Starbase, everyone should receive a baseline physical. During this physical four readings (heart rate, blood pressure, respirations, and temperature) and ten scans (Cranial scan, Brainwave scan by hyper-encephalogram, Bronchial scan, Gastrointestinal scan, Muscular scan by resonance tissue scanner, bone scan, cardiovascular scan, blood scan, lymphatic scan, reproductive scan) should be performed.

Although most people don’t do these regularly. Partial physicals are supposed to be done when a crewmember returns from an Away Team. Four readings (heart rate, blood pressure, respirations and temperature) and two scans (Brainwave scan by hyper-encephalogram and blood scan) should be done for this physical.

Diagnosis

If as a Chief Medical Officer you aren’t able to prevent diseases or injuries, your secondary purpose is the diagnosis of illnesses and diseases. Once as a CMO you’ve diagnosed an illness or injury, there are two ways that treatments can be rendered, technological treatments and pharmaceutical treatments.

Away Team Duty

Depending on the mission, often a medical officer is sent along on the away team. Their main job of course is to see to any injuries that may occur to any member or the away team or any other medical emergencies.

Research

In the context of Mission Orders being sent with the purpose of research, medical often supports science, or replaces them if there is no science officer on the ship. Where science is scanning for everything under the sun, medical's main concern is anything that has to do with the biological. Biological includes plants, animals, insects, birds, fish, bacteria, microbes, anything defined as living.

Medical Assistance

There are times when a ship will be sent out to help another ship who is in the midst of a ship wide medical emergency. Medical on the ship will lend assistance to the ship on which the emergency is located.

Relief Aid

There are other times when planets may be in the midst of planet-wide or even a localized epidemic. Starships may be called in to assist or bring medical aid. In cases like this Medical may be called upon to research, diagnose, and treat the medical ailment. Often times discussing facts with your SM will be of great value. He or she will usually provide some information upon which you can go in hopes of solving the medical situation.

Medical Briefings

A medical brief is often collaboration between the CMO and the GM. They are not written up as often as science briefs, but in cases where biological or medical are the underlining theme, they can add to the storyline. They also give the other players references to use so that everyone is using the same language and has the same basic knowledge of what is going on.

Often the GM will give the CMO a free hand with a medical situation, giving them the key points that need to be included or in some cases, left out. Unless the medical personal is fairly certain of their GM and what they expect, the Medical Brief should be sent to the GM for approval before sending out as a personal log or as part of the Mission Notes.

A distinction needs to be made between a Medical Brief that is sent out and one that is done during a mission during a meeting. If one knows they will be presenting data during a meeting they should pester the GM before hand for any information they might need. If possible, have it typed up and prepared to give before hand to save mission time. Otherwise, those mission briefs are often a gathering of facts that have already been given and you are now presenting it combined and in a medical genre to send out with your log.

Medical Drills

Planning – In planning medical drills you will need to take several things into consideration.

Decide if the drill is meant as a character development tool (OOM) or if it is to interact with different ship departments. (In mission)

Ask your GM’s and Captain’s permission (if you want to do this in mission)

Decide on a scenario that will be used to test the ship’s medical readiness.

Consider recruiting NPC’s or crew to assist in the drills.

Supervising

During in mission drills, you may find yourself needing to direct certain character’s actions a specific way. Feel free to give them information that will motivate them to make moves that you need.

Research

Sometimes Mission Orders will state that you will be doing medical research on a particular species of plants or beings. It is strongly suggested, that until you are absolutely positive that what you are studying is safe, that you keep it in some kind of containment field. When working with this type of mission, make sure you ask as many question.

Other times, research can be done during the course of a routine mission that has nothing to do with medical. If you find yourself in one of those situations in which medical is either underutilized or not utilized at all devise a scenario that gives your character some medical research to do.

Administrative Duties

OC: It is suggested that if you have a created staff for all areas and shifts, that you might create a short profile for them for the crew to use in their logs. This works well when the crew needs or wants a doctor and either doesn't want to bother the CMO or the CMO is not readily available.

In Character

Assigning Medical Staff’s duties – The CMO is responsible for assigning the medical staff’s duties. Take a look at the different units that are on your ship and assign NPC’s to cover those aspects. You can do this for a log idea or in character during a mission slot.

Setting Medical Staff’s schedules – The CMO is responsible for setting the medical staff’s schedules. Again, create a list of your medical NPC’s, their ranks and positions (MO, Med Tech, Nurse, etc) and schedule them for certain shifts. Again this can be done in a log or in the context of a mission.

Searching for or replacing medical staff – This is an area in which you can do a lot of character development. You can “interview” people for the position, spend time talking to the NPC’s superiors, etc.

Supervising Medical Staff – This can fall under so many categories. This can be done during medical emergencies or it can be done as part of a routine happenings. Even the simplest of tasks, that as a CMO, you supervise can become great log or interaction ideas.