Medical Assistant (Royal Navy)
| Medical Assistant | |
|---|---|
Rating insignia
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| Issued by | Royal Navy |
| Type | Rating |
| Abbreviation | MA |
| Specialty | Medical Branch |
The Medical Assistant. is a Royal Navy medical rating in the United Kingdom. Medical Assistants serve on all types of ships in the surface and submarine fleet, Royal Marines or ashore in a sick bay, hospital, or other establishment. The equivalent rate in the United States Navy (USN) is Hospital Corpsman.
The Medical Assistant provides a broad spectrum of skills in primary care, occupational health, secondary care, pre-hospital trauma life support, medical administration, teaching First-Aid and disease prevention, providing health briefs, and basic environmental health. These are performed in a variety of roles at sea in a ship or Submarine, with Royal Marines Commandos, Fleet Air-Arm, shore establishments, Ministry of Defence Hospital Units, UKSF, and other Tri-Service Depts. Predominantly they provide day-to-day healthcare for their crewmates as a vital part of the ship's company. On larger ships, they are part of a medical team, while on smaller ships they may be the only medic on board.
The Medical Assistant was previously known as Sick Berth Attendant and Sick berth Steward (19th-20th century) and earlier as loblolly boy (16th–19th century). Medical Assistants are colloquially known as "scablifters" or "doc" in Royal Naval JackSpeak. The Sick Berth Branch of the Royal Navy can said to have originated in 1833 when a directive was issued to Commanding Officers to organize a "Sick Berth Attendant" category of naval rating in each ship. They received no formal medical training and it was not until June 1883 that a Committee, known as the Hoskins Committee, after its Chairman, Rear Admiral A. H. Hoskins was formed to enquire into the organization and training of the Sick Berth and Nursing Staff of the Royal Navy Hospitals. The Committee, after visiting Naval and Military Hospitals as well as the larger London Hospitals reported their findings to the Admiralty in the autumn of 1884. The Admiralty gave their verdict in an Order in Council dated October 17, 1884. This Order authorised the establishment of a trained Sick Berth Rating Staff with the following Rates:
The Order also supported the formation of trained female nursing staff in naval hospitals, which in 1902 was to become the Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service.
It was thought that boys from the Greenwich Hospital School, later The Royal Hospital School, would fill the vacancies. This proved not to be the case, so entry was opened to the Royal Marines and civilians.
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