How to properly write about medical activities?

[Cathul Thuku]

Although ICly some dark side master beat my character's medical skills (not knowledge, though) out of her with generous applications of beatings and dark-sided powers, I accepted to play along with that because I found out that I couldn't write about medical activities worth two beans.

Now I feel is time to ask about advice on how to do good writing about medical activities (including but not limited to Force-healing) so that, if the right opportunity comes along, I can have one of my Force-using characters assume some medical functions again.

 

[James Justice]

1) Do your research. Read medical journals, Mayo Clinic is good for some stuff, really get to know what your going into. Any good journalist will tell you that before you write you need to do research. You know Tom Clancy? You know what makes him one of the most popular and best modern writers? He does research. All his stuff is legit. Don't just find a few words and throw them around. That makes you look like a try hard and a dummy. Respect the craft by doing your diligence and those in the craft and outside of it will respect you.

2) Respect the patient. Seriously, do it. Kinda goes hand in hand with rping. Respect their personhood and don't act like your some kind of a god who is so kind to save them. You wanna be a doctor? Be compassionate. Which is kinda number 3.

4) First do no harm. There's a reason the Hypocratic oath exists. If you can't abide by it IC-ly, then your character isn't a doctor or a healer like at all. And that's cool if that's not gonna jive with your char concept, just don't expect people to recognize you as a doctor if you don't act as one. This oath is agreed on by every medical field that exists as the fundamental part of being a healer. It's your creed. Learn it, live it, love it.

5) RP the doctor youd wanna have. That means compassion, patience, sympathy. I will speak on my own craft of healing (psychiatry) since its all I can claim to be an expert on. The most valuable point of being a psychologist is not brilliance--in fact charisma is ten times more important than brilliance in this craft. It'd be who you are that's more important. Compassion, patience, tenderness, care, and empathy are important. A study done by the APA showed these to be what people look for in a mental health professional. If people wanted Frasier as a doctor, they'd watch Frasier. They don't. I remember when I've been through some sick sh1t medically the doctors who cared were the ones who made me feel ten times better than those who clearly had no f's given. Show you care. And if your character doesn't, well they should reconsider career choices.

I'm very open to additions or corrections in this advice.
Cheers.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Seras Goto]

First do no harm.

Lies and slander

*goes back to her super secret biological weapons testing medical labs

 

[Natasi Fortan]

I refuse to teach about medical training unless you hare a year-2 medical student, [member="Cathul Thuku"].

 

[Teynara Jeralyr]

[member="Natasi Fortan"] Totally in agreement there. Healers should confine themselves to healing, and not pretending to be Doctors. We can't RP what we don't understand.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

[member="James Justice"] Psychiatry was Cathul's original medical function (and the very reason why I even created Cathul in the first place) but that I will never have her play that again. Nevertheless, with proper research into a given medical condition, and proper diagnosis, proper use of Force-healing follows. As far as Cathul is concerned, diagnosis is a major thing that matters for proper use of Force-healing. But that's perhaps a function of her vision of the Force, however.

[member="Teynara Jeralyr"] I never quite understood the difference between a healer and a physician. In my mind both healers and doctors were accomplishing medical functions on some level.

All that I ever understood about Force-healing was that grave stuff could take forever to heal even with Force-healing (for various physiological reasons that are condition-dependent) and force lengthy recovery periods onto the healer; last I talked about Force-healing ICly across any of my characters, I mentioned that one shouldn't expect near-instant healing every time, and certainly not a Padawan-level FU. (Cathul's apprentice later went on to cure a rather minor muscular tear)

 

[Teynara Jeralyr]

[member="Cathul Thuku"] A Healer is one who uses the Force both for diagnostic and healing purposes: they are Jedi-trained, with a basic understanding of anatomy and physiology, but ultimately best serve in the role of conduit for the healing energies of the Force. To train as a Doctor or Surgeon requires many, many years of education that a Jedi does not have time for: they focus on their own training and being out in the field, where their skills could do the most good. Thus, a trained and effective Healer is one sufficiently educated to understand what they are looking at, and can deal with it through the use of Field medicine and Force abilities, but they are not a fully-trained civilian Doctor, and do not hold that title.

Remember, a Jedi Healer must be a Jedi first, and are not excused the regular order of training in order to pursue a Healer's path.

 

[Jsc]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

What would Jesus do?

 

[Cathul Thuku]

[member="Teynara Jeralyr"] At least it makes sense by now...

I began Cathul's redemption so that she could be an actual Jedi down the road. I played her mostly as I would a rather generalist Consular, so I have a pretty clear idea of how she will be played out as a Jedi. Except that here, unlike canon, Jedi can own corporations, in which case IGR builds social housing, homeless shelters on devastated planets and does land reclamation, the sort of things I would expect from a full Jedi owning that particular corporation. For now, she is more Witch than Jedi.

 

[Captain Larraq]

Although ICly some dark side master beat my character's medical skills (not knowledge, though) out of her with generous applications of beatings and dark-sided powers, I accepted to play along with that because I found out that I couldn't write about medical activities worth two beans.

Now I feel is time to ask about advice on how to do good writing about medical activities (including but not limited to Force-healing) so that, if the right opportunity comes along, I can have one of my Force-using characters assume some medical functions again.

I am an EMT.

From my standpoint, medical practices are visceral and highly graphic and highly physical/mechanical.

1) Do your research. Read medical journals, Mayo Clinic is good for some stuff, really get to know what your going into. Any good journalist will tell you that before you write you need to do research. You know Tom Clancy? You know what makes him one of the most popular and best modern writers? He does research. All his stuff is legit. Don't just find a few words and throw them around. That makes you look like a try hard and a dummy. Respect the craft by doing your diligence and those in the craft and outside of it will respect you.

This 10,000% this. Do some research before writing about something you are unfamiliar with. Even if that research means knowing someone who HAS done their research and asking them.

2) Respect the patient. Seriously, do it. Kinda goes hand in hand with rping. Respect their personhood and don't act like your some kind of a god who is so kind to save them. You wanna be a doctor? Be compassionate. Which is kinda number 3.

Bullpoodoo.

"This is for your own good."
*stabs patient with Epi Pin*
*shoves a very uncomfortable metal object into patient's mouth*
*force protruding bodyparts back into anatomical position*

I can hurt the patient all I want so long as it is for their own good.
(I kid. I am not quite that crazy)

4) First do no harm. There's a reason the Hypocratic oath exists. If you can't abide by it IC-ly, then your character isn't a doctor or a healer like at all. And that's cool if that's not gonna jive with your char concept, just don't expect people to recognize you as a doctor if you don't act as one. This oath is agreed on by every medical field that exists as the fundamental part of being a healer. It's your creed. Learn it, live it, love it.

Yes and no. You, as a medical provider, have a job to do. Fix the bloody patient. The patient is your work and your workplace. It really boils down to how severe the medical situation is and how conscious the patient is. If they're out cold? You don't care. Their body is just one more body. Cut the shirt/pants off as needed and get to work saving their life. Dignity comes secondary to life saving.

It they are fully with it and the medical issue is minor? Sure. Now is the time to hold hands and play nice and pretend you care about how an elderly patient's grandchildren are doing. You don't care, but you want them to think about something positive instead of whatever it is that is bothering them.

Somewhere in the middle? Well, then it's time to take actions that are somewhere in the middle. The shirt has to come off so you can apply leads to their chest. You don't care about their body. It's just another body. Live, dead, you've seen hundreds. But they might be shy and you need to be respectful. So you ask them to take it off. They have a huge-enough "chest" that you need to actually lift up the boob to apply the lead (the censor-pad that gets stuck to people's chests in movies), just ask them to lift up their chest. Also. I've done this one personally. The conversation went something like this. "I'm sorry hun, I have to stick these onto you. Could you please lift these up for me? They're kinda in the way and I can't really move them myself."

(Yes, this really happened. The woman (young 30s) was incredibly flattered by the treatment and proud of her impressive Dangers)

 

[James Justice]

[member="Captain Larraq"]

Well with point four I apologize if it was ambiguous or poorly worded. I'm on mobile today.

Dignity does come second, for sure. E.g: a bacterial infection I had on my skin was pretty sever. The doctor had to bend me over and give me a shot in the hinterlands. Minor, yes to many nasty things that can have to happen like colonoscopies or tests for testicular cancer or papsmar. Etc etc etc. Dignity I meant more in the sense of respecting that the person is.... A person? Not a robot or machine and thereby not being condescending or dick-ish. Compassionate, I suppose, and empathic. Does that make more sense? Better?

 

[Klesta]

Keep in mind that no healer will fit every single patient (at least I know it's true of psychiatry).

 

[Ellie Mors]

no healer will fit every single patient (at least I know it's true of psychiatry).

The difference between physical healing and mental treatment is that while a doctor of mental health might approach a patient different from every other doctor, there are standard protocols that physicians and healers follow that keep things more or less streamlined. While certainly a specialist might not fit for the task of something outside of their realm of knowledge, it isn't the same thing as shopping for a psychiatrist or psychologist in order to find the right match.