Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Leah Hart (Nurse Practitioner/Counseling) in The Arrival of Leah Hart

Posted by Lieutenant Kreed (Chief Medical Officer) in The Arrival of Leah Hart

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Leah Hart (Nurse Practitioner/Counseling) in The Arrival of Leah Hart

(snip)

“No, I agree. He’s shown no sign of being a willing patient and if I want him to treat with with respect, I want to do the same and treat him as the capable adult he is.”

Leah pressed her hands together before her as she considered how to best explain the rest. “In terms of my initial assessment, it doesn’t surprise me that you have to order him to have the eval done. In fact, he waited so long to pick one of the times I gave him that he couldn’t have simply not met the 48-hour condition you stipulated by default. And all that because the denial he is in about his issues runs so deep that his mind has created a wall around it all and he can’t see any of it. He can acknowledge the symptoms of an anxiety attack when they occur, but he can’t connect them to anything. I can extrapolate a lot from his records, but it does me no good to know all that myself. He has to accept for himself that those are the things he is dealing with. Until he can actually acknowledge them aloud, we’ll get no where.”

“Agreed. Hence my insistence on bringing you on board. I do not have the training to deal with psychological issues of that magnitude.” Kreed said

“I’m curious what was the deciding factor for you? What made you let him stay on duty, even with the condition?”

~Leah Hart, NP

“This crew has seen a great deal of turmoil and instability.” Kreed said almost immediately. “I weighed the potential negative impacts the Commander’s attitude, demeanor, and capabilities have now versus the impact yet another new officer in a position of leadership would have. It was very close. But I think, for now, that having the stability in the role outweighs the impact a new XO would have. But it is such a small difference to me that if he does not do every single thing he is directed to, I have no compunction of removing him and dealing with the impact of the change.”

Kreed, CMO

Leah nodded again and sighed. “You know, in the entire conversation I had with him, he spoke of how much his research meant to him. He spoke about his career but only from a science perspective. From a medical perspective, I am concerned about the stress the role of first officer can add to his already damaged heart. He’s clearly having panic attacks and I suspect his anxiety extends beyond just coming in for checkups in Sickbay. I haven’t seen really strong evidence that he wants to be XO. He could still be Chief Science Officer and not have that added pressure and that would still keep him on the ship, but unlike every command officer I have ever dealt with, the ship and its crew never once came up as being important in terms of that piece of his career, so it honestly baffles me why he’s in the role. But until I talk to the captain as the person responsible for his performance evaluations, I can’t really gauge the situation. I need more time here in order to understand the different variables, and that is why I was willing to not make a determination during that call.”

~Leah Hart, NP

Kreed nodded emphatically. “Yes! Yes that is it exactly. His anxiety and trauma reactions has reached a point where the baseline level of empathy has been compromised! He has built so many defenses to protect himself from.... whatever he is protecting himself from… that he has cut himself off from everyone around him!” He shook his head and exhaled heavily. “Not a trait that the ship and crew needs in their Executive Officer.”

Kreed, CMO