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Old 09-30-2020, 07:12 AM   #21
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: How can I represent nursery skills?

Nurse Practitioners in the USA can pretty much do anything that a doctor can do, they just tend to be specialized by their practice (children, elderly, veterans, etc.). In general, they tend to shift the more complex cases to physicians, though NPs have full independence in 22 states (each state regulates them differently). This independence comes with greater compensation, as a starting NP can make over $190,000 per year, though $98,000 per year is more typical, depending on the locality and the scope of their duties (meaning that they would have a Wealthy job that supports Status 2 at the higher earning levels).
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Old 09-30-2020, 07:16 AM   #22
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Default Re: How can I represent nursery skills?

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Nurse Practitioners in the USA can pretty much do anything that a doctor can do, they just tend to be specialized by their practice (children, elderly, veterans, etc.). In general, they tend to shift the more complex cases to physicians, though NPs have full independence in 22 states (each state regulates them differently). This independence comes with greater compensation, as a starting NP can make over $190,000 per year, though $98,000 per year is more typical, depending on the locality and the scope of their duties (meaning that they would have a Wealthy job that supports Status 2 at the higher earning levels).
Hmm, interesting. "though NPs have full independence in 22 states" means in these states NPs have the authority to do all tasks doctors do?
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Old 09-30-2020, 07:17 AM   #23
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But a nurse can't do Diagnosis and Therapy that a physicain or surgeon do... these are a licensed tasks that is allowed only for a doctor...
Don't confuse the name of a skill with the word for some real-world thing. Skill names are only meant to invoke an idea. Having the Physician skill doesn't mean you're a physician; it means you have "the ability to aid the sick and the injured." The Diagnosis skill doesn't mean you're licensed to diagnose patients; it means you have "the ability to tell what is wrong with a sick or injured person."

I think the skills a professional nurse would have are Physician, Diagnosis, and Professional Skill (Nurse). The last of these represents the skill of dealing with things like bedside manner, feeding patients, helping them get dressed or go to the bathroom, juggling patient accommodations, operating hospital equipment, communicating with doctors, and doing the relevant paperwork.
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Old 09-30-2020, 07:19 AM   #24
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Don't confuse the name of a skill with the word for some real-world thing. Skill names are only meant to invoke an idea. Having the Physician skill doesn't mean you're a physician; it means you have "the ability to aid the sick and the injured." The Diagnosis skill doesn't mean you're licensed to diagnose patients; it means you have "the ability to tell what is wrong with a sick or injured person."

I think the skills a professional nurse would have are Physician, Diagnosis, and Professional Skill (Nurse). The last of these represents the skill of dealing with things like bedside manner, feeding patients, helping them get dressed or go to the bathroom, juggling patient accommodations, operating hospital equipment, communicating with doctors, and doing the relevant paperwork.
Well. I thought doctors and nurses have significant differences when they do their major.
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Old 09-30-2020, 08:09 AM   #25
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Default Re: How can I represent nursery skills?

This is a question of social rules more than anything else. The "doctors" of some times and places wouldn't be allowed to work as nurses in others, never mind as doctors. The "nurses" of some times and places would be better doctors than the actual doctors in others . . . but possibly not great nurses by local standards.

The best way to handle this is to create a certification represented by a License perk, and then to list the skills and levels needed to pass the exams to be awarded that License. In effect, this is similar to a martial-arts style, where you receive a perk (Style Familiarity) when you learn the right set of skills – except that unlike in that case, you'll usually need more than just one point in certain skills. But as for a martial-arts style, you could also include optional perks, skills, and techniques.

Here, License (RN) and License (MD) would be separate perks. As it takes more study to become an MD in most societies, the latter might be more prestigious – but it's still just a perk because the "real" cost is in the skills. And being an MD doesn't let you act as an RN. In fact, in most jurisdictions in the modern world, it's illegal to work as an MD and an RD on the same shift; you have to clock in and out as one or the other.

As for "What skills, then?", they're basically drawn from the same set: Diagnosis, Electronics Operation (Medical), First Aid, Pharmacy, Physician, Physiology, Psychology, Surgery, etc. Just use years of study to guesstimate total points in these things. Allocate those points as suits your society. It's very common for a modern-day nurse to end up with better Electronics Operation and Psychology that a doctor, lower Physiology than a doctor, much lower Diagnosis, and no Surgery at all.

I'll add that I think a Professional Skill would be overkill here. Most of the core work of a nurse is in Physician skill already; that's the skill of patient care. What makes doctors "better" is possibly a higher level of Physician, definitely higher levels of Diagnosis and Physiology, and at least basic Surgery. Doctors are better at deducing what's gone wrong and where.
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Old 09-30-2020, 08:12 AM   #26
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Well. I thought doctors and nurses have significant differences when they do their major.
I'm sure they do. But each skill in GURPS is not a specific course of study you'll find in a school. They are game abstractions of things that are important in a game context. You can't "simulate" a college education with GURPS skills; you can only use GURPS skills to give your character whatever practical abilities they express in the game. Both doctors and nurses have "the ability to aid the sick and the injured," so both have the Physician skill regardless of which college or graduate courses they took to get it.

Don't think "what training did I get?" Think "what can I do?"
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Old 09-30-2020, 08:19 AM   #27
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But each skill in GURPS is not a specific course of study you'll find in a school.
This is hugely, hugely important!

GURPS skills don't correspond 1:1 to real-world courses, professions, certifications, jobs, or anything else. They are numbers to roll against to perform lists of feats.

To know what skills your student, laborer, professional, or whatever needs to do what they do, figure out what feats they'd have to perform to do that and give them the corresponding skills at levels that suit their total experience level. If you need to tie a bow around it, assess a perk like Courtesy Title, License, Permit, or Office to those who meet the skill minima and pass any exams their society requires.
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Old 09-30-2020, 09:01 AM   #28
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Default Re: How can I represent nursery skills?

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Well. I thought doctors and nurses have significant differences when they do their major.
Some of that is timing, some of that is methodology, and some of that is emphasis.

In the US, Nurses work hard at learning medicine almost immediately. In a four year degree, the last two and a half years are strait nursing courses that study nothing but specialized nursing courses.

By contrast, medical students during this time are taking academic courses on chemistry, physiology, and microbiology. None of these courses are really specialized for medicine, and very few of them are taught by practicing medical doctors. About the time the Nurse steps out of school to start their first job, the premed student applies to a new school and actually becomes a medical student with four more years of school and more mandated training time still head of them. And those are the nurses who took the long road.

The medical program and the nursing program are more similar to each other than premed and nursing, but they study in different parts of the medical system, and they study the parts they'll be doing. And the emphasis of doctors on diagnosis vs care is very much a thing.
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Old 09-30-2020, 09:28 AM   #29
AlexanderHowl
 
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Hmm, interesting. "though NPs have full independence in 22 states" means in these states NPs have the authority to do all tasks doctors do?
Pretty much, though I believe that they require a physician specialist to confirm diagnoses in cases of disability applications, insurance settlements, and long term prescriptions. For example, while NPs working for the VA may make an initial diagnosis and order tests, it is the physician specialists that make the final diagnoses for determining disability and for any long term prescriptions.
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Old 09-30-2020, 10:14 AM   #30
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Default Re: How can I represent nursery skills?

From what I've seen here, NPs in community health centres usually prescribe medicine that you could get over the counter, so it'll be cheaper (scripts are subsidised) and diagnose things like childhood illnesses, etc.

In hospitals they mostly adjust dosages, etc., to suit a patient's condition as long as the changes are following an expected pattern - their presence means the doctor or surgeon in charge of the case doesn't have to be contacted for every change. If things go in unexpected ways a doctor is called, and they'll make any needed changes (generally in consultation with the NP, any other doctors involved, etc.).
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