Paramedic

MEDICAL STAFF
Paramedic	Access: Medbay, Morgue, EVA, Maintenance, External Airlocks Qualifications: Must be least 18 years of age with a Paramedic certification. Employers: Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, Nanotrasen, The Private Military Contracting Group Supervisors: Chief Medical Officer Duties: Recover and safely deliver injured crew to Medbay, work against the clock. Guides: Guide to Medicine

The Paramedic plays an extremely important role on board the ship. Primarily tasked with reaching injured crew members far from medbay, every second counts and every action or inaction means the difference between life and death. Paramedics are trained in the medical field, but are not doctors thus they cannot perform surgeries or advanced diagnoses. They're trained in detecting and fixing symptoms found on the field, and assisting in triage when necessary.

Starting Out

You spawn in Medical, along with all of your coworkers. The Paramedic quarters, your home base, is on the second deck, just above the medical storage room. You can find your equipment inside the lockers, and on the tables. Naturally, the first thing you're going to want to do is prepare your equipment. Spawning as a Paramedic will allow you to start with an advanced first aid kit (hey, why are you reading this guide if you're playing the role...?).

Equipment

• Medical HUD: To check records and patient physical condition on the go. Also available in aviator form. So cool! Also, you can alt-click on someone to change their triage tag.
• Latex Gloves: To prevent spreading infection. Nitrile works too and is the only option for our clawed friends.
• Sterile Mask: To avoid catching or spreading infections.
• Health Analyzer: Used for diagnosing basic injuries.
• Advanced Trauma Kits: Treats brute (physical) damage, and prevents infections.
• Advanced Burn Kits: Treats burn damage and prevents infections.
• Rescue Hardsuit: This is your primary means of EVA travel. It comes equipped with several modules, including:
  • Leg actuators: Middle-clicking on a tile with these activated and selected will allow you to immediately leap forward, and land on your feet if you fall from another floor! Keep in mind that if you're carrying a roller bed with you, they're not going to leap with you.
  • Jetpack: Exactly what it says it is. Fly around freely in space.
• Medical Voidsuit: While there are two medical hardsuits, the hardsuit module removes the ability to wear a bag. It is up to you whether having a bag or having a hardsuit is more valuable. In the case the bag is more valuable, a voidsuit will be needed. These can be found in EVA on deck 1.
• Splint: To secure fractures before moving a patient.
• Hypospray: This neat little tool injects up to 15 units of chemicals. This is faster than pills and more sanitary than syringes.
• Inaprovaline: Can be found in the NanoMed. A general stabilizer. The most important chemical you'll ever have. Inaprovaline does many amazing things, including slowing down all bleeding, keeping the heart rate stable, and acting as a mild painkiller.
• Dylovene: Can be found in the NanoMed. An anti-toxin; helps heal and protect the liver in case someone has been poisoned or irradiated.
• Dermaline: Can be found in pill form in the paramedic quarters; otherwise made by a Pharmacist. Treats and disinfects burns. Do not mix with kelotane.
  • Kelotane: A weaker form of dermaline. Can be found in pill form in the General Treatment Room.
• Butazoline: Made by a Pharmacist. Treats brute damage. Do not mix with bicaridine.
  • Bicaridine: A weaker form of butazoline. Can be found in pill form in the paramedic quarters.
• Dexalin: Made by a Pharmacist; its weaker variant, Dexalin, can be found in sleepers or in injector form in medical storage. Can be administered through inhalation, injection, or pill. Do not administer to Vaurca.
• Roller Bed: To quickly transport patients unable to walk.
• Body Bag: To transport dead patients to the medbay.
• Stabilizer harness: Performs CPR automatically and supplies the patient with emergency oxygen (if you turn the CPR function on).
• Stasis Bag: Slows down a patient's vital functions; also shields them from dangerous atmospheric conditions, like the vacuum of space. Ideal for transporting a critical patient.
• Painkillers: Perconol can be found in a NanoMed; mortaphenyl pills can be found in the paramedic quarters. Patients in extreme pain are likely to faint, or even cause pain shock, leading to their heart stopping, neither of which is ideal.
• Coagzolug: An important chemical for slowing down bleeding. You have Coagzolug autoinjectors in the lockers of your Quarters and Nanomeds contain 2 bottles each. Always carry one on your person!

Your Department and You

Physician/Surgeon

The dynamic between the Physicians, Surgeons and the Paramedic is a vitally important dynamic. Paramedics are expected to retrieve patients for the Physicians and Surgeons to treat. This does not entirely exclude Paramedics from assisting in the GTR, however it should only be done when requested or during an emergency. There are other functions which a Paramedic can do within the medbay, but the focus of a Paramedic is always on what is outside of the medbay.

When bringing a patient to the medbay, it can be useful to inform the Physicians and Surgeons of the general state of the patient over the radio. Details are not needed, but the severity and type can help prepare whoever may be receiving the patient. You should also inform the receiving Physician of what chemicals have been administered to avoid overdosing patients.

Pharmacist

The Pharmacist can be a very useful coworker. Paramedics can often fill their role without the need for extra chemicals beyond those already in the medbay, however having access to advanced chemicals such as Adrenaline, Mortaphenyl, Dexalin Plus, and so on can enhance your capabilities.

Remember that the purpose of a Paramedic is to retrieve patients and treat minor injuries in the field. If there is a limited supply of chemicals from the pharmacy, the Physicians should get first pick.

Chief Medical Officer

Remember that the Chief Medical Officer is your boss. They have a direct link to the activities of the other departments, such as security, and can offer vital information about potential locations where injuries may occur. Some areas cannot be accessed by Paramedics. In these situations, working with the CMO may be necessary to gain access and retrieve otherwise unreachable patients. Utilize their expanded access, and in return listen out for their orders and keep them informed.

Responding to an Emergency

You've been waiting for the whole shift, and suddenly, you've heard the call (or seen a weird pulse on suit sensors)! "Medical to [location]!" Time to rush there and see what's going on.

When responding, make sure to remember your three S's:

1. Speed. Get there quickly. If you don't recognize the location of the patient, ask over comms. Someone will likely be happy to help you or direct you to the general area.
2. Safety. There's nothing that can jeopardize your patient more than you screwing yourself over. Make sure you're not entering a vented area without internals, make sure you're not rushing into an active firefight, make sure you're not about to trip and fall into a hole. You can't help others if you don't help yourself!
3. Sanity. Remain calm. Making quick decisions is all well and good, but if you make the wrong quick decision, it can make your patient's condition even worse. Take a breath, assess what's around you, and go from there. And if you screw up, remember that it's only a game.

Whatever the state of your patient, the following steps are applicable in pretty much any situation:

1. Scan your patient with a health analyzer. Their condition will pop up in your chat; you'll see their brain activity, blood oxygenation, damage on their body, and if they're in shock, have an unknown substance in their blood, or are suffering from major systemic organ failure. This should help you figure out what to do next.
2. BANDAGE ANY BLEEDING. This is the most critical step in pretty much any first response scenario. People bleed out very quickly, and it's a very easy way to kill a patient if they become hypovolemic/have low blood volume.
3. Inject inaprovaline. You can pretty much never go wrong with injecting inaprovaline. Whether it's to slow their heart rate or speed up their healing, inaprovaline makes everything better.

If the patient is fully conscious, not bleeding internally, not vomiting, and has a high brain activity, then all you need to do is diagnose the specific problem and administer the necessary medicine on the field. It is advised, however, to bring the patient back to the medbay for a more thorough check.

Critical Patients

Here it is; the bread and butter of your department. If someone is at serious risk of dying, it's your job to get them in to the medbay so they can be treated more intensively by the Physician and Surgeon. More likely than not you'll find critical patients (brain activity below 100%) are unconscious, or otherwise unable to communicate. This will make finding the exact cause of the problem a bit harder in the field, which would require you to transport the patient to the medical bay post-haste. But before that, a series of steps are required to make sure your patient doesn't die on the way. The steps are listed in order of importance.

1. If the patient is in a dangerous area, bring them away from the danger.
   1. If they're in bad atmos, seal them inside a stasis bag.
   2. If they're in the middle of a firefight or otherwise at risk of incurring more trauma, use grab intent to drag them away without worsening their wounds.
2. Administer inaprovaline. This will make sure their condition doesn't worsen too much.
3. If the patient is bleeding, use a trauma kit to stop the bleeding.
   1. If the patient has an extremely low blood volume, just bring them to the medbay immediately.
4. If the patient is bleeding internally, administer coagzolug.
5. If the patient is suffocating, inject dexalin. Seal them in a stasis bag if the trip back involves a vacuum.
6. Treat any remaining burn, brute or toxin damage with the application of advanced kits or pills, to further improve the state of the patient.
7. Administer painkillers if the patient is suffering from shock or conditions that cause pain, like fractures, burns or brute damage. Patients in shock are less communicative, which will hamper your efforts.
8. Finally, unless your patient's condition would make running to medbay right this instant a life or death endeavor, splint any fractures before strapping your patient to the roller bed and rolling away.

If possible, you should utilize the capacity of your hypospray to inject multiple chemicals at once. Furthermore, if the Chief Medical Officer is willing, ask for their premium hypospray to inject up to 30 units of chemicals instantly.

While transporting the patient, make sure to ask them how they’re feeling. Don't let the effort that went into stabilizing the patient go to waste, throwing away the advantage of having a perfectly responsive patient.

On arrival, make sure you brief any doctor that will handle your patient on what you did, and whatever their symptoms were. Remember that ICly, doctors shouldn't give out treatment lightly, and failing to inform the doctor of past steps might have them repeat the treatment, which might lead to an overdose.

What to Do When Out of Emergencies

Paramedics, being non-doctors trained in the medical field, can assume other roles around the medbay to make the lives of the Physicians and Surgeons easier and improve overall efficiency of the medical bay.

• Help move patients from one branch of the medbay to another.
• Monitor the reception area, monitor suit sensors.
• Handle triage, stabilize patients who were left waiting.
• Check up on patients who were given a bed.

Traitoring

As a Paramedic, you get all the perks Medical Doctors get when traitoring, from deliberate malpractice to using your medicines of good for plots of evil. But one added perk is that, as a Paramedic, you're usually the only medically trained person to first reach a dying patient outside the medbay walls. That can be used to your advantage: frantically dragging off a bleeding body is part of your job, and in no way suspicious.

Roleplay Tips

• Remember that Paramedics are not MDs. Keep that in mind, and use it to give an interesting edge to your character. Think like an EMT would, not a doctor. Asking questions a doctor would consider 'silly' is perfectly fine for you.
• Paramedics are trained on urgency, speed and that every second counts, unlike the MDs who had to spend over a decade studying to start practicing. That contract between your coworkers and you can be used to enhance RP.