The Sickbay Questions

[valkyrie013]

So, just surfing the internet, and had a thought, Is Sickbay properly portrayed in the various series. From Sickbay itself as a room/setting, to the personnel that man it.

I've always thought sickbay itself was to small, and there just HAD to be some rooms that adjoin it.. One being a room full of beds and supplies for battle/emergency/trauma situations where they had a large number of casualties.
Another is some rooms for long term care, like a regular hospital room now adays.
Always considered Sickbay as a "Clinic" where one goes for general maladies like sprained arm, headache, or crew physical. And suspect most of the time the crew is in great physical shape and some days no one visits sickbay at all. This is also where we see a doctor like Beverly doing experiments etc. to fill the day.

Now the personnel, TOS seemed to be the most "accurate" in that we had the main doctor in McCoy, and a head nurse in Chappel, then various other doctors like M'Benga, and labs and probably other nurses.

Tng also had the same with Doctors, nurses, labs ect. but didn't show/name any other doctors.

DS9 had mainly Dr Bashir, ( admittingly, its been awhile since I've rewatched DS9.. so memory is vague)
DS9 should have had like Tos and Tng, A head doctor, multiple other doctors, nurses, rooms etc. like a real hospital because it was a station.

Voyager had just the Doctor, with Kes, and to a lesser degree Mr. Paris. The doctor didn't need to sleep so that was okay, but he did need a dedicated nurse, multiple people for emergency's. So maybe somebody that say was a botanist, was on call to take a nurse duties on occasion, maybe a rolling trio of people.

Enterprise had the worst on personnel. Yes Dr Phlox didn't need sleep.. until he does.. He had no Nurse, no other doctors. If something happened to him, the ship would be screwed. Should have had at least 1 other doctor, and a few nurses to help.

So just venting abit on how the medical section is shown, anybody else have any ideas on how it can be better shown?? Any other quibbles?

 

[The Wormhole]

DS9 had mainly Dr Bashir, ( admittingly, its been awhile since I've rewatched DS9.. so memory is vague)
DS9 should have had like Tos and Tng, A head doctor, multiple other doctors, nurses, rooms etc. like a real hospital because it was a station.

There are other doctors and nurses on DS9, they just rarely if ever had dialogue.

Voyager had just the Doctor, with Kes, and to a lesser degree Mr. Paris.

And their original medical staff, prior to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant, was just a human doctor and a Vulcan nurse.

Enterprise had the worst on personnel. Yes Dr Phlox didn't need sleep.. until he does.. He had no Nurse, no other doctors. If something happened to him, the ship would be screwed. Should have had at least 1 other doctor, and a few nurses to help.

Actually, that was probably the most realistic. The NX-01 only had a crew of 80 or so, and today it's only ships with very large crews (high hundreds) that even had a doctor assigned. Granted, the NX-01 was intended to be a deep space vessel operating on its own, so that could justify having a doctor assigned despite the small crew, but one doctor and one nurse is all they would need.

My main beef is mainly with Disco's medical staff. In the first two seasons, the ship has a crew of 130, and its medical staff consists of four doctors (Culber, Pollard, Space Whale guy, the never seen CMO) and several nurses. Compare that to Voyager, a ship with 150 crew, and their medical staff was just one doctor and one nurse. Why does Disco have such a disproportionately large medical staff?

 

[fireproof78]

He had no Nurse,

One exobiolgist served as medic for Phlox named Cutler.

 

[Angry Fanboy]

...their original medical staff, prior to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant, was just a human doctor and a Vulcan nurse.

Could easily have been more medical staff aboard who were killed when the ship was dragged across the galaxy - just because the doctor and the nurse were the only ones seen that doesn't necessarily mean they were the only ones onboard does it?

 

[The Wormhole]

In the real world, an actual ship with a crew of 150 would also have a medical staff of 2, but you're right. It's foolish of me to think Star Trek actually got something right for once.

 

[flandry84]

And the mission profiles were different for both Voyager and Discovery.(Though given the anti-maquis mission Voyager was on there might have been a greater risk of casualties)
Given the levels of education we see in the federation anyway I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the other crew had medical qualifications.

 

[fireproof78]

In the real world, an actual ship with a crew of 150 would also have a medical staff of 2, but you're right. It's foolish of me to think Star Trek actually got something right for once.

We can't have that

 

[Angry Fanboy]

It's foolish of me to think Star Trek actually got something right for once.

Such negativity!

 

[trekshark]

I've always found the lack of privacy disturbing. The beds have nothing between them

 

[valkyrie013]

The nx had privacy curtains between beds, guess the could have had hologram privacy shields in tng-post.

True , in emergency some crew were trained emt/medics to help Sick bay at red alert. Even in Enterprise.
It was just Only Phlox, as a matter of redundancy on a long deep space mission, have a backup doctor, sure may be young and learning, but he/she/it would be learning.

 

[NCC-73515]

TNG had Selar, anti-splint guy, Hill, Martin,...
The deck plans show many sickbay rooms, even larger ones IIRC.

 

[fireproof78]

I've always found the lack of privacy disturbing. The beds have nothing between them

There is no privacy in the 24th century.

 

[somebuddyX]

Future people have no concerns for privacy so we should either show or imagine all the patients naked.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

. . . and today it's only ships with very large crews (high hundreds) that even had a doctor assigned. . . .

There are documented cases of emergency appendectomies being performed aboard World War II submarines. Typically by a Pharmacist's Mate (now called a "Hospital Corpsman").

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

There are deck plans of the E-D that show a huge medical complex with surgical suites, physiotherapy rooms, a large recovery ward, and various other features, so the room we see in each series is likely just a ward that serves as the CMO's clinic (given their office is always attached to it). DS9's infirmary really is more of a doctor's office up front and a dedicated ward in the rear (though I suspect it too likely has other facilities).

I wish I could remember where, but years ago I remember reading a crew statistic that said Kirk's Enterprise had a medical staff of 30, which would mean roughly one medic for every 14 members of the overall crew--when I devise crew complements this is the figure I use for a rough approximation. On larger ships they would include labtechs, dentists, etc, though on smaller ones it might mean there is only a doctor and a couple of corpsmen.

 

[Timo]

My main beef is mainly with Disco's medical staff. In the first two seasons, the ship has a crew of 130, and its medical staff consists of four doctors (Culber, Pollard, Space Whale guy, the never seen CMO) and several nurses. Compare that to Voyager, a ship with 150 crew, and their medical staff was just one doctor and one nurse. Why does Disco have such a disproportionately large medical staff?

I guess a big part of this is that the Discovery really is a giant ship. There only being 130 people aboard during "Choose Your Pain" is the artifact, not the presence of three or more doctors (the Space Whale Commander probably would have been the CMO).

And this I don't see as a problem, because Discovery as a whole is an artifact. She's a super-secret collection of science projects, each no doubt tightly segmented: the mushroom project basically has a doctor of its own, say, with Culber concentrating on treating his lover on Lorca's devilish prompting. But at one point, Lorca decides that spore drive is the winner (it was the only project that interested him in the first place); a good time to send a 800 people packing, since only the mushroom team need know about the spore drive. But the basic operating crew, which includes the original high-ranking CMO and other Chiefs, plus folks like Detmer and Owosekun, also has to stay and fly the ship.

In out-universe terms, the writers tried to do away with top officers, which was a misguided attempt doomed to fail. But fortunately for them, their character Lorca also would have tried to do that: he wanted lackeys, not officers. So he'd sideline the higher-ups the best he could, meaning we never see the CMO or the CEO and the CSO eats from his hand. And the science ship concept certainly allows for a high number of highly educated officers, rewarded for their smarts with high rank.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Qonundrum]

So, just surfing the internet, and had a thought, Is Sickbay properly portrayed in the various series. From Sickbay itself as a room/setting, to the personnel that man it.

I've always thought sickbay itself was to small, and there just HAD to be some rooms that adjoin it.. One being a room full of beds and supplies for battle/emergency/trauma situations where they had a large number of casualties.
Another is some rooms for long term care, like a regular hospital room now adays.
Always considered Sickbay as a "Clinic" where one goes for general maladies like sprained arm, headache, or crew physical. And suspect most of the time the crew is in great physical shape and some days no one visits sickbay at all. This is also where we see a doctor like Beverly doing experiments etc. to fill the day.

^^this

TOS had, what, 3 beds? TNG looked like it had 6 or so... A few more would make sense, though for lesser injuries or contagions or if someone spread cooties, being confined to quarters with staff heading to them as needed wouldn't be amiss.

Now the personnel, TOS seemed to be the most "accurate" in that we had the main doctor in McCoy, and a head nurse in Chappel, then various other doctors like M'Benga, and labs and probably other nurses.

Tng also had the same with Doctors, nurses, labs ect. but didn't show/name any other doctors.

Dr Selar? It's a shame she was only shown once, in season 2, and referred to occasionally but rarely thereafter. Definitely the most underused doctor...

DS9 had mainly Dr Bashir, ( admittingly, its been awhile since I've rewatched DS9.. so memory is vague)
DS9 should have had like Tos and Tng, A head doctor, multiple other doctors, nurses, rooms etc. like a real hospital because it was a station.

DS9 I'd have expected to be the most "conventional", but what is a space station but an immobile spaceship only bigger (and with a tasty nougat center)?

Voyager had just the Doctor, with Kes, and to a lesser degree Mr. Paris. The doctor didn't need to sleep so that was okay, but he did need a dedicated nurse, multiple people for emergency's. So maybe somebody that say was a botanist, was on call to take a nurse duties on occasion, maybe a rolling trio of people.

The EMH addresses an interesting idea, that of "what if the main medical people die for whatever fun reason?", and yet they still need human and humanoid doctors. (Meh, the energy requirement rated in megawatts/second would be higher than a hippie on Haight-Asbury in 1967. (George Harrison actually went there one day back then... )

Enterprise had the worst on personnel. Yes Dr Phlox didn't need sleep.. until he does.. He had no Nurse, no other doctors. If something happened to him, the ship would be screwed. Should have had at least 1 other doctor, and a few nurses to help.

Pretty much. By then, "franchise fatigue" (or whatever the and/or other reason(s)) rendered it the least effective. YMMV, of course.

So just venting abit on how the medical section is shown, anybody else have any ideas on how it can be better shown?? Any other quibbles?

Well, every since TOS the sickbays have always been bland gray'n'beige instead of blues, greens, and/or purples that tend to be more calming, or if nothing else help to improve color TV sales but (and YMMV) I adore TOS using sets as canvases for playing with color and the lighting experts constantly did a fantastic job in making it bold and balanced yet not garish or dull. I think they used a bold yellow behind the large scanner display readouts, once?

That, and tangible hologrammatic technology that allows such precise operations seems hard to swallow, especially if it needs a human(oid) to assist rather than more roving holographic thingies. (Robert Picardo pretty much had to sell the role, and sold he did. And as much as I say he riffs on the McCoy "I'm a doctor, not a __" line, he is otherwise his own personality and it's largely great and he sells the "I'm a doctor" shtick really well too.

 

[Takeru]

So maybe somebody that say was a botanist, was on call to take a nurse duties on occasion, maybe a rolling trio of people.

I'm so sick of disrespectful posts like this. I'm a nurse, I trained for years to become one, then even more to become a specialized nurse, I keep taking courses every year to keep my knowledge up to date but apparently none of that is important because everyone can be a nurse.
A botanist has no qualifications to work as a nurse, none! And the only reason you suggested it is because you have no idea what a nurse actually does but assume it can't be particularly hard, do you have any idea how offensive that is?

 

[1001001]

How come newer shows don’t have those cool foot pedals in the sickbay walls anymore?

 

[Finn]

holodecks?