Physician, heal thyself

[Didact04]

Given that there are people who are literally incapable of even attempting medical procedures of any complexity, and that failing to treat a wounded or sick colonist is a very real death sentence...I feel like at the very least it would make sense for them to, at the very least, staunch their own bleeding injuries. Or self-medicate illnesses at a portion of the success rate.

Obviously they can't operate on themselves, but at the very least it would make your only doctor getting the flu or pricking their finger less needlessly damning.

[BetaSpectre]

Support, though first aid is about how far it should get.
First aid then real medical attention after a fight.

[REMworlder]

Applying basic first-aid to oneself would be great to see, if not for colonist then for raiders and visitors. For them especially, getting nicked just leads to trails of blood covering the map. And if the raiders are on a siege, they'll bleed out from a cut whereas IRL people would at least try to bandage it.

On rare random starts, I'll have only one colonist capable of medical care. Then when he gets a minor injury the game's over. He can't bandage the squirrel bite he got, so he bleeds for days, gets an infection, and dies of a super minor injury.

Basic first aid would simply be bandages.

Bandages could work just like meals do. Kept in the inventory and used once. This would keep doctors still valuable for serious injuries, when the victim has more than one flesh wound, or when the player doesn't want to make or buy bandages.

[cultist]

A simple solution would be to allow colonists who are currently unable to Doctor to do so, but always force a poor result when they do. And maybe apply a skill decrease like the one for very high level skills to ensure their skill is always 0. You could also restrict them from using any kind of medicine.

[BetaSpectre]

Personally I think that medicine should be required to use as medkits.
Just enough to stop bleeding. Any medicine IMO should work. New items might be harder to comeby, and in real life there are combat stimulants and field kits for the injured to keep going.

[zecorezecron]

Personally I think allowing wounds to heal without medical attention would be nice, but have it take a day or two with a decent chance of having it scar (moreso than a poorly treated one) and take longer to heal.  So you would have "treated well" "treated poorly" and "scabbed over" instead.

[cultist]

Personally I think allowing wounds to heal without medical attention would be nice, but have it take a day or two with a decent chance of having it scar (moreso than a poorly treated one) and take longer to heal.  So you would have "treated well" "treated poorly" and "scabbed over" instead.

Bruises heal on their own over time, and I think bleeding wounds have a chance to stop as well (wild animals caught in crossfires etc. sometimes recover just by resting on the ground without treatment).

[Didact04]

It'd also be nice if colonists wouldn't try to use medicine on bruises. They don't develop anything bad from it and all using medicine does is waste it on something you might actually need, like, uh, I don't know...installing someone's leg back on?

Also, I don't know about anyone else, but last I checked you didn't need a bandage to stop bleeding. I've watched the rate that bleeding wounds stop in this game: it is ridiculous. Either everyone in this game is perpetually on blood thinners or in the future we just lose the ability to form blood clots. Any fool should be able to put something over the wound to encourage clotting, regardless of their 'doctor' skill.