Isn't it dumb to only have 1 Doctor on Voyager and NX-01 Enterprise?

[Prax]

Doctor Crusher, Pulaski, Bashir, Lord Schweitzer, Phlox, and I believe even McCoy all strongly discouraged self diagnosis, and self treatment (unless you are Vulcan, then its okay) When B'elanna was all depressed and hurting herself, she kept a dermal regenerated in her room; hidden, so that no one would know.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

The Doctor did have disdain for what he regarded as menial tasks in comparison to his vast abilities:

KES: Computer, activate the Emergency Medical Holographic system.
EMH: Please state the nature of the medical emergency.
KES: Actually, there is no emergency. I'm creating a hydroponics bay. I was told you could provide me with some nitrogenated soil samples.
EMH: That's it?
KES: I'm sorry if
EMH: So it begins. The trivia of medicine is my domain now. Every runny nose, stubbed toe, pimple on a cheek becomes my responsibility.
KES: You are the only doctor we have.
EMH: I am not just a doctor. I've been designed with the information from two thousand medical reference sources and the experience of forty seven individual medical officers. I am the embodiment of modern medicine. How much dirt do you need?
KES: Four samples will be enough.
EMH: Now I know how Hippocrates felt when the king needed him to trim a hangnail.

 

[ian128K]

It's a little bit of a different situation, but I'm currently on a Navy MSC ship with a crew of around 40 people. We have a medical bay aboard, but no dedicated staff for it. The medical officer is technically the Chief Mate (basically the XO), and one of the 3rd Mates is the assistant medical officer. Additionally, all crew are trained in first aid. Most of the time, the medical bay is locked up. The only times I've seen it opened were during my orientation when I first joined the crew and when we had to do a random drug screening.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

In the S.C.E. books the Sabre-Class da Vinci has three medical staff for a crew of 41 (as well as an EMH). I'd say it makes sense to have the medical bay manned with at least a corpsman or medtech at all times, if nothing else for workplace accidents, physicals or check-ups, not to mention inventory, equipment maintenance, upkeep of medical records, cleaning duties, continued patient care (if anyone requires overnight observation). If something major occurred then they'd be on hand to provide initial triage and treatment whilst the ship's surgeon is paged or to aid an EMH.

I read somewhere years ago about the TOS Enterprise having a medical staff of 30 for a crew of 430 (though that was everything from doctors to nurses to dentists to lad assistants, etc), which is the typical ratio I use when thinking up a crew roster.

 

[Mister Spock]

Phlox does seems to be a jack of all trades when it comes to medicine, but surely there would be requisite support staff to handle other medical duties - physiotherapist, surgeon, nurse, dentist etc.

 

[Prax]

It's a little bit of a different situation, but I'm currently on a Navy MSC ship with a crew of around 40 people. We have a medical bay aboard, but no dedicated staff for it. The medical officer is technically the Chief Mate (basically the XO), and one of the 3rd Mates is the assistant medical officer. Additionally, all crew are trained in first aid. Most of the time, the medical bay is locked up. The only times I've seen it opened were during my orientation when I first joined the crew and when we had to do a random drug screening.

We just use the classroom, and the medics volunteer people to "watch"

 

[Tenacity]

does Starfleet Academy not teach inter-species medicine

When the US Military want to give it's doctors experience (before the fact) in treating battle field wounds, they send them to hospitals in certain cities to gain actual experience.

Emergency surgery for gun shot, stabbings, burns, beatings.

What better place for M'Benga to learn the treatment of Vulcans than the everyday practice in a ward that handles Vulcans? Simulation only takes you so far.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Star Trek has never really addressed the difficulty of doctors learning how to treat every single different species they might come across. It's hard enough to master one species. In a realistic multi-racial starship they'd probably need a dedicated specialist for every species and teach doctors they need to constantly learn the bare basics of every species they are responsible for.

 

[Prax]

They just read "McCoy's interspecies anatomy" or whatever it's called that Kes had to read. After that, you just guess.

What I want to know is how interspecies mating is possible. Spock has green copper blood, and his heart is down in his side. B'elanna has two hearts I think.

Interspecies reproduction must be a very dangerous and often tragic practice.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Vets deal with multiple species all the time

 

[Mister Spock]

They all speak in English in outer space, so maybe by sheer coincidence every species has exactly the same anatomy and chemical makeup.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

They just read "McCoy's interspecies anatomy" or whatever it's called that Kes had to read. After that, you just guess.

What I want to know is how interspecies mating is possible. Spock has green copper blood, and his heart is down in his side. B'elanna has two hearts I think.

Interspecies reproduction must be a very dangerous and often tragic practice.

They probably have well documented literature about which species can safely reproduce, which cannot reproduce, and whose hybrids have horrible medical issues.

The Chase makes interspecies mating a little more reasonable, you can just say they intended all the races they created to be able to mate with each other in order to make them all one big happy family.

Vets deal with multiple species all the time

Yes but anything too hard to cure they can recommend euthanasia without becoming a national news story.

 

[Nyotarules]

When the US Military want to give it's doctors experience (before the fact) in treating battle field wounds, they send them to hospitals in certain cities to gain actual experience.

Emergency surgery for gun shot, stabbings, burns, beatings.

What better place for M'Benga to learn the treatment of Vulcans than the everyday practice in a ward that handles Vulcans? Simulation only takes you so far.

So what's McCoy's excuse apart from his Terrancentric attitudes?

 

[Nyotarules]

Star Trek has never really addressed the difficulty of doctors learning how to treat every single different species they might come across. It's hard enough to master one species. In a realistic multi-racial starship they'd probably need a dedicated specialist for every species and teach doctors they need to constantly learn the bare basics of every species they are responsible for.

Probably why the Vulcans insisted on all Vulcan ships, they don't trust anyone else to treat them! lol

 

[Timo]

So what's McCoy's excuse apart from his Terrancentric attitudes?

By careful study involving internship at Klegos III, he became highly competent in treating the Klegosians aboard the Enterprise, while the incompetence of M'Benga in that particular field would have killed all four-and-a-half sooner or later, and deprived Kirk of valuable (and more or less human-looking) officers and crew?

My real bet is that McCoy's special competence in Space Psychology was a priority, and vital for the 429 humans aboard, so he couldn't spare the time for Vulcan Anatomy - but Starfleet could, with a bit of time and effort, assign a specialist on that latter field to the ship along with the one half-Vulcan.

My spare bet is that Dr. Boyce was an expert on Vulcans, and so was Dr. Piper, but Kirk wanted his old buddy McCoy there even if this was at some risk to that strange and cold-blooded coworker of his.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Kor]

How many physicians would be on real-world naval vessels with those crew sizes?

Kor

 

[Timo]

We already have a few real-world examples. But today it's fine to have zero medics on a ship because of a number of factors that don't apply in Trek:

1) Patients can leave the ship and reach a medical facility. (In Trek, ships are often far away from medical facilities.)

2) Typically they can leave using methods of transportation much, much faster than the ship herself. (In Trek, there's nothing faster than a starship.)

3) Medicine doesn't really help all that much anyway in severe cases, and the non-severe ones can be ignored. (In Trek, death can be cured and people who lose limbs can go back to fight the next morning.)

Yet this chiefly applies to the hero starships, which are frontier explorers or stranded in the frontier by circumstance. Janeway's command, of the latter type, apparently could have done nicely without a Counselor in her intended theater of operations. Other commands may do fine without any medical expertise aboard.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Prax]

Do you mean they could be flown to a medical facility by helicopter?

 

[Paul Weaver]

That's why I think the best analogy is antarctic bases, especially overwinter.

 

[Prax]

Don't like 90% of the workers leave during winter?