View source for Medical Policy

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=Introduction=
This policy serves to outline the OOC rules governing how you play medical roles on-station. The goal of this policy is to help set a basic minimum of conduct extending from the main server principles specific to how you play in medical as a department.
If interested in an in-character set of guidelines and considerations for positioning yourself in roleplay, instead refer to the Medical SOP - this policy is for administrative enforcement.

== Basic Requirements ==
As a player, playing medical has the following requirements:
* Make at least some good-faith effort to play the role you signed up for when called upon if you aren’t taking on another role in the round. Otherwise, don’t take it.
* Don’t go out of your way to subvert other players’ ability to play the game in the roles they’ve chosen without first having given them a chance to play those roles.
* Comply with the basic standards for medical play laid out in this policy.

Bad-faith failure to meet these requirements in a way violates the [[Server Rules|broader server principles]] may not only invite IC consequences but administrative action as well. 

Your exemption from these requirements extends as far as whatever you are doing is judged to be more broadly consistent with the [[Server Rules|server’s greater guiding principles]].

== Specific Roles ==
Specific jobs within the medical department have specific, interlocking responsibilities and rules which apply.

===[[File:Generic cmo.png|link=Chief Medical Officer]] [[Chief Medical Officer]]===
* Judge, approve, and maintain medical sites according to the rules on [[#Medical Sites, Surgery, and Revival|Medical Sites, Surgery, and Revival]].
* Authorize, inspect, approve, and announce contagious viruses according to the rules on [[#Virology|Virology]].
* As a member of Command: follow other requirements as laid out in [[Command Policy]].

===[[File:Generic virologist.png|link=Virologist]] [[Virologist]]===
* Only produce and release viruses according to the rules on [[#Virology|Virology]].

===[[File:Generic Medical guard.gif|link=Departmental Guards]] [[Departmental Guards]] (Orderly)===
* As a [[Departmental Guards|Department Guard]]: follow requirements about your powers, use of force, and general behavior laid out in [[Security Policy]].

===[[File:Mediborg.png|link=Cyborg]] Medical [[Cyborg]]===
* As a Silicon: follow requirements for your behavior under standard and non-standard lawsets laid out in [[Silicon policy]].

== Specific Rules ==
Medical has specific rules around procedures that must be followed only around these areas listed below. These govern: 

=== Medical Sites, Surgery, and Revival ===
'''This applies to all roles in the medical department including cyborgs.''' 
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|'''Medical sites''' are defined as,
''“Approved or pre-built spaces and facilities for providing medical care."'' 
* These spaces and facilities must be approved by the Chief Medical Officer if not pre-mapped-in.
* Alterations to pre-built spaces and facilities must be approved by the Chief Medical Officer and should not be carried out without approval.
* This applies only to functional alterations meaning those which alter in some way the performance of medical work (i.e. adding/removing beds and computers.)
* In the instance of people joining the round late: the Chief Medical Officer's OOC power to approve alterations and sites only applies over those which did not have previous approval.

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|'''If not in medical, a medical site, or an absolute emergency where necessary to avert greater harm, you are not allowed to perform surgeries besides Tend Wounds.'''

In medical or a medical site, '''surgery must first be deferred to Medical Doctors with adequate opportunity given for them to respond and attend to the surgery.''' 
* ''If not a medical doctor or acting as a medical doctor as a cyborg/CMO, this is to say you must make a good-faith effort to loop in a doctor to perform any surgery in medical before doing it yourself and let them do it if they come forward.'' 

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|'''Revival''' may only take place outside of medical or a medical site under emergency conditions where transport to medical or a medical site is infeasible because they 
* A) cannot be safely accessed for revival or 
* B) cannot be transported to without undue risk of total loss of the patient

In medical or a medical site, '''revivals must first be deferred to Medical Doctors with adequate opportunity given for them to respond and attend to the revival.''' 
* ''If not a medical doctor or acting as a medical doctor as a cyborg/CMO, this is to say you must make a good-faith effort to loop in a doctor to perform any revival in medical before doing it yourself and let them do it if they come forward - unless it’s an absolute emergency, get them to medical and get a doctor.''

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=== Virology ===
'''This applies to anyone engaging with virology.''' 
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|Except with admin permission, '''only beneficial viruses may be produced and intentionally released.''' Consult the [[Infections|Guide to Virology]] before any engagement with this content.
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|Non-contagious viruses (those with the ‘blood’ vector and no contagious symptoms like coughing/sneezing) should be looked at by at least one other person in medical (ideally the CMO or, in their absence, a virology-competent MD) or someone else familiar enough to evaluate them before release. 
They should also be clearly-labeled (ex. with symptoms, cures, and slime-safeness.)
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|'''Airborne/touch-spread viruses are allowed, but they may only be released only under the following conditions.'''

* Only the Chief Medical Officer, Captain, or Acting Captain may approve the release of a contagious healing virus. You must secure and keep their approval before releasing it.
** ''Ideally, you will have gotten their approval before starting any development of a contagious virus so as to save time if they say ‘no’ which they may do at any point.''

* The virus must be of at least one of these two categories. 
** The first category is a healing virus created with symptoms that are capable of healing or helping whoever catches them. 
** The second category is a blocker virus or one with high resistance and meant to function as a shield against other harmful advanced viruses. 

* Viruses of these types must have no active negative, harmful, or disruptive symptoms. 
** ''While on-balance a virus with self-respiration and coughing might spread better and heal more than it hurts, coughing is negative (causes people to drop things,) harmful with high stats (causing damage/knockback,) and obnoxious. '''If you put negative symptoms on a contagious virus to increase its stats, they must be neutered/inactive.'''''

* For healing viruses, they must also be 'slime-safe;' contagious healing viruses may not have active symptoms that heal toxin damage. 
** ''Symptoms that do this currently include plasma fixation, starlight condensation, and radioactive resonance. These will kill a slimeperson if activated and so must not be released.''

* The virus must be announced to the crew ahead of release. 
** ''Ideally, the cure or a vaccine for the virus is available inside the front fridge of Medical if it is possible (or safe - some viruses have harmful cures,) but this is not a hard requirement; there are arguments both for and against it.'' 

* The Chief Medical Officer, Captain, or Acting Captain must inspect the virus before release to ensure that all the above conditions are met. 
** ''Ideally this person will also make the announcement; they take responsibility with you for any issues that arise.'' 

'''You may not produce or release contagious viruses without meeting these criteria.''' 

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=== Good Faith Protection for Suicide, Mental Health, and Trauma RP ===
'''This applies to anyone finding themselves in these situations; but has ''particular bearing on medical and medical-adjacent roles such as the [[Psychologist]]'' due to their in-character nature.'''
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|'''It will not be considered in bad faith for you to disengage from roleplaying around content or situations with which you are not personally comfortable or capable of engaging with while still enjoying the game.'''

This is to say that nobody should say to you that you are obliged to proceed or engage with this content because you had previously done so or because of the role you picked.

Medical and medical-adjacent roles put players in positions to encounter many problems portrayed in roleplaying which have sensitive real-life analogues; not-infrequent examples include
* suicide, self-harm, and ideation;
* mental health crises, severe mental illness, and substance abuse;
* abusive relationships, trauma, and loss.

'''This does not imply that others have a responsibility to not roleplay out this content; ''this is strictly a protection for you in choosing to disengage from it.'''''
|-
|This extends from [[Server Rules#Rule 11: Behave in accordance to our principles|server rule #11]] and the broader Skyrat server principles, particularly the first: be considerate of others.
You have worse and better ways to disengage from content if you find yourself in such a position; LOOC is perhaps your immediate best tool as being considerate of others admits of the possibility that they do not know your limits or boundaries about the content with which they might present.
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''Last updated 03/11/2023 - policy editor Higgin#2299''

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