[DISCUSSION] Medical Pharmacy vs. Chemistry

[Brainrot]

I will add a comment here as I myself believe that the Pharmacist as an actual role, not a gimmick role, is wonderful. 

This comment is not directly replying to anything sent here already, it is simply my thoughts on it. When it comes to chemicals that medical needs, I have in the past attempted to request these directly from Research with the console, and I do not believe even once I have managed to have an order filled for the chemical(s) requested. They were not difficult ones either, they were chemicals such as Diphen, Perf, or Salicylic Acid.

More often than not, Research has their own projects that they are involved in and even when I have played  in chemistry myself? I hardly see the request console used. I feel it is good to mention this as some people may suggest to remove the pharmacy entirely from Medical and migrate those needs solely to Research... which, given the issue mentioned, might not be good either as they might just get no chemicals at all during the shift.

Having the Pharmacist role available is beneficial. Medical Doctors are able to focus more on treating the patients rather than running back and forth between the pharmacy to make medications while there are critical patients wandering into the lobby that need immediate attention. With a Pharmacist, they are able to take these requests and focus on those without worrying about what is necessarily going on out there. This means that the Pharmacist can perform their job without interruption, and the Medical Doctors can have their energy directed to healing and revival of the crew while being supplied by the Pharmacist themselves.

Having the Pharmacy access locked is debatable as I understand. However, I think it is fair. There is a Pharmacist for a reason currently, and allowing all of Medical to access this will encourage anyone and everyone to go in there rather than.. you know, asking the person who has the job to make those chemicals for you. That would lead to the Pharmacist being out of work, that is a concern of mine when it comes to having the access unrestricted between them. Also, the MDir still has access here. If the Pharmacist is absent or not assigned during the shift, they can take on the role as they inherently have this access.

When it comes to equipment? I think that what we currently have is...fine. If there needs to be more heavy-duty chemical work, that's when I would say it's chemistry's job and not the pharmacist's. I would like to mention, Pharmacists do have access to both the Medical and Research frequency. If you are a Pharmacist and you need more advanced items, asking on the radio for spares from chemistry couldn't hurt.

With this said, I think this was a great change. I do think improvements could be made, but most of what has been added is fine the way that it is. Those are my current thoughts on the matter simply from what I have experienced between both departments and the concerns I have about some things that may be brought up!

[Lord_earthfire]

• atropine, really important for remote deep crit situations, nothing can cure cardiac failure besides it below -65 health and not having the Atropine Synaptizine combo means patients are more likely to die outside of medbay resulting in less attempts to treat it outside, resulting in RNG gambling to rush them to medbay, resulting in more cloning in case you lose. Also atropine has this saxi purge effect based on real life usage, don't just randomly chuffle something like this. 

Just a misconception: the connection between atropin and saxitoxin IRL doesn't exist. It was a thing when sacotoxin was still sarin. With the name change, that purge effect is only on atropin for historical reasons.

When i read that part, i'm honestly thinking that it is the perfect candidate for a removal from the medivend.

It's important enough that doctors will ask botany (black venne) or pharmacy/chemistry to make it. When it is missing, it will not cause the department to break down, it will only cause more death outside of medbay. And that's not necesarily a bad thing.

Honestly? That is the perfect chemical to be called an optional upgrade to medbay instead of a baseline requirement.

• Diphenhydramine: This is basically a required chemical on any shift. There are many hyper-allergenic crew who will not be fixed solely by epinephrine and the dialysis.
  
• Robustissin: Required chemical. If someone has lungrot there's no other way to fix it. 
  
• Salicyclic Acid: Not on your list but honestly it's one of the ones that should be. Mostly used to make perf quickly or speed up cloning and there's FOUR bottles of it in each NanoMed.
  

Yeah, i think diphenhydramine needs to stay in the nanomed.

The argument with robustissin and lungrot makes sense. I think we should need some, but i am not sure it needs to be 3 whole bottles. Maybe 2 would suffice.

Salicylic acid is a compelling argument... i just didn't wanted to touch it since its a fairly important chem in baseline med vendors to enable normal personell to reach medbay. The slowdown removal is its greatest asset. But maybe medbay itself could do with less of that.

Also, Pharmacopia needs a rewrite! Much of the information is extremely outdated(pre-rework), so if we want pharmacist to be a job where people can learn how to do medical chemistry, we should also probably make sure the guidebook is actually useful.

I'd be willing to help with that, but I'm not sure how you'd write a book for a PR. If anyone is interested in PRing a "Pharmacopia 2nd Edition" or something for helping with chemistry and especially pharmacists, please reach out! I'd love to help you out and research/write for it.

Oh heck yes! I would love to help with that. Hit me up on dm's or the discord.