5 Tips for Writing Medical Scenes: A Guest Post

Y'ALL! Today we get to try something new! (I could give you the typical 'and I'm so excited for it' line, but I won't do that to you) I've approached some authors and put together a series of guest posts that is gonna be epic.

What is this series title, you ask? I...have no idea. *shrugs* But what I do know is that every other month, I will be posting a list of five tips to help you improve your writing! I've already learned so much from today's post, and I'm sure that you will too.

Today's guest is Jesseca Wheaton, bringing you five tips for writing medical scenes!

Hey guys! For those who don’t know me, my name is Jesseca. I work full time on our local ambulance service, and in my free moments I dabble in writing. I’m also an indie author and I’ve published several books. Currently I’m studying to get my degree in Paramedicine. I’ve been an EMT since 2018 and an AEMT since last year. I worked in the ER for nearly two years before I left that and went full time on the ambulance. I’m currently loving it and wouldn't change my job for the world. And as anyone will tell you, I’m notorious for finding medical errors in books and TV shows. Working in the medical field I notice things I don’t even want to and I’ve decided I should probably stop watching Chicago Med. After all, it seems most of what I do is lecture the show for having things wrong. XD Anyway. Kate’s invited me here today to talk a little bit about writing medical scenes and characters, so let’s get started.

1) Do your research. Are you writing a character with Asthma? Research the disease. Study more than you need to know for the book. It’s easy to open a book and tell whether the author actually knows about the disease they’re writing about, or whether they did just enough research to know some facts about it. Same goes with medical procedures. And I’m not talking about surgeries, I’m talking about something as simple as placing an IV. If you have your medical character start a 16g IV in the hand of a little old lady in a nursing home, any medical professional reading that is going to roll their eyes. It doesn’t matter how small the detail — do what you can to make it as accurate as possible. Your readers will thank you. (And I’ll definitely thank you.) I don’t mean just internet and book research. If you really want to write an accurate book with a first responder character, go out into the field and do some hands-on research. Most EMS agencies will let you do a ride-along with them to see how things work, and they’re more than willing to answer questions. It’ll add a degree of realism to your book you wouldn't have otherwise. Also … don’t use TV shows as your research. Maybe that seems obvious, but the amount of people I know who have watched a medical TV show and decided to write a medical book … Let’s just say there’s more than one. 


2) You don’t need to go terribly in depth. If you decide to write a medical scene and you don’t know much about the medical field, that’s okay! You don’t have to. Hit the important parts and don’t give many details. Say the paramedics came and took the guy in an ambulance. Don’t try to talk about what they did on scene or in the back of the truck. But if you do decide to go into detail …  


3) ...Ask someone who’s knowledgeable in that area. Doctors, Nurses, Paramedics, AEMTs, and even most EMTs will be able to answer basic medical questions. Find one who doesn’t mind answering some questions and ask them how things would most likely go. Obviously every situation will be different but there are some medical facts that won’t change. (If your character has lost a lot of blood, chances are he’s not gonna be able to grab a sword and just keep on fighting.) And just a fun fact for you here … any sort of trauma to the abdomen can be just as fatal as trauma to the chest.

4) Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation hasn’t been practiced for a number of years. In fact, most instructors who teach CPR classes have gone to teaching compressions-only CPR. If your character comes upon someone who’s down without a pulse, they most likely won’t have any sort of CPR pocket-mask with them. (I mean … unless they’re in the medical field and carry one just in case, or they’re paranoid and try to be prepared for any circumstance.) In such a situation, hands only or compression only CPR is what’s encouraged. It’ll keep the rescuer safe, while also improving the chances for the person found down.

5) If you decide to make a medical character your main character, keep in mind that they don’t think like everyone else. They’ll notice details most people don’t. And they have a sense of humor all their own. 

Sometimes people accuse us of being insensitive, but you need to realize that we have to have a certain degree of that to be able to do our jobs. We can’t be bothered by life and death situations. We won't freak out over a minor injury. Most of the time we don’t show emotion. Don’t get me wrong, we all have that one call that still haunts us. We still wonder if there’s anything more we could have done. But you’ll never know that unless we feel like you’re someone who will understand. It’s why we tend to stick together. We’ll share things with each other because we know that someone who’s in the same spot will understand. It isn’t often that we’ll share things with someone outside. (Unless maybe you’re our best friend and we tell you everything regardless of what it is. )

People working in the medical field can’t imagine doing anything else. It isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. Sure, there are days that are hard. There are days we question why we ever chose this profession. But there’s a reason we haven't left yet. This is what we were called to do. 

I hope this was somewhat helpful! And if you ever have any questions about writing medical characters, feel free to shoot me a message! You can find me on Instagram at @jessiedawn98. 

Thank you, THANK YOU, Jesseca, for writing this post! Super helpful, and the memes were fantastic. ;)

If y'all have any topics you'd like to see covered in this series, drop them in the comments!

What do you struggle with most when writing medical scenes?