Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - What level Physician skill should an MD have?

cosmicfish · 05-28-2013, 01:15 PM

I think that today, in the US, you might be able to get a medical license with 12's in the major medical skills. Might. I think board-certification will be tougher, and almost all MD's in the US are certified: Family-practice MD's will have 14's in Diagnosis and Physician, ER docs will have 16's in Diagnosis and First Aid, internists might need 16+ in Diagnosis and Physician, and Surgeons will likely need 16+ in Surgery. Most specialities will involve skills outside the scope of GURPS, generally as Hyperspecialization perks and the like: A dermatologist is probably only even going to have 12 in the major skills if they are recently educated, more experienced dermatologists will probably have had most such skills atrophy.

In a more general sense, 12 as a professional minimum is really only for professions that happen with lots of time and acceptable errors - two things that many medical professions lack. I would say that if a job requires near-perfection or immediate on-demand performance then 14 is a more realistic minimum, and if it requires both then at least a 16. You can be a professional pilot with a 12, dusting crops and the like, but it might take 16 to be a 747 pilot, 18 to fly an F-22, and 20 to be a Blue Angel.

05-28-2013, 01:15 PM	#2
cosmicfish Join Date: Mar 2010	Re: What level Physician skill should an MD have? I think that today, in the US, you might be able to get a medical license with 12's in the major medical skills. Might. I think board-certification will be tougher, and almost all MD's in the US are certified: Family-practice MD's will have 14's in Diagnosis and Physician, ER docs will have 16's in Diagnosis and First Aid, internists might need 16+ in Diagnosis and Physician, and Surgeons will likely need 16+ in Surgery. Most specialities will involve skills outside the scope of GURPS, generally as Hyperspecialization perks and the like: A dermatologist is probably only even going to have 12 in the major skills if they are recently educated, more experienced dermatologists will probably have had most such skills atrophy. In a more general sense, 12 as a professional minimum is really only for professions that happen with lots of time and acceptable errors - two things that many medical professions lack. I would say that if a job requires near-perfection or immediate on-demand performance then 14 is a more realistic minimum, and if it requires both then at least a 16. You can be a professional pilot with a 12, dusting crops and the like, but it might take 16 to be a 747 pilot, 18 to fly an F-22, and 20 to be a Blue Angel.