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Do cruise ships have medical facilities with doctors and nurses on board? The short answer is yes.<\/p>\n
When you board a cruise ship you become part of a community of people of all ages who will be together for several days, a week or more. On large cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers and crew, your community may be the size of a town or even a small city. To handle any health issues that come up in this floating metropolis, cruise lines employ doctors and nurses who work out of an onboard medical center.<\/p>\n
To be clear, the onboard facility is not a hospital \u2013 it’s more akin to a health center or ambulatory care unit. The professionals who work there have training in emergency medicine and the equipment to stabilize a patient even in dire circumstances. Mostly, though, what they deal with are things like sprained ankles, upset stomachs and people who have forgotten to pack medication.<\/p>\n
For more cruise guides, reviews and tips, sign up for TPG’s cruise newsletter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n That said, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many cruise lines have expanded their medical care facilities on ships and added new requirements for medical personnel. Royal Caribbean<\/a>, for example, now requires all its doctors to have training in acute respiratory illness and has added an infection control officer who oversees the line’s infection control plan on each ship.<\/p>\n If you have an emergency on any cruise ship, you can push a button on your stateroom phone for help \u2013 the equivalent of dialing 911 from your home phone. For minor ailments, you can visit the medical facility during set office hours.<\/p>\n The American College of Emergency Physicians, in conjunction with the Cruise Lines International Association, sets strict standards for who treats patients, as well as guidelines for medical facilities, on ships operating from the U.S. Similar authorities are involved for international cruises. All medical staff are both certified and experienced.<\/p>\n Under the ACEP standards, physicians must have three years of post-graduate\/post-registration experience in general and emergency medicine or be board-certified in emergency medicine, family medicine or internal medicine. Staff also must be certified in advanced life support or have certification or physician specialist training in areas such as emergency medicine, anesthesiology or critical care.<\/p>\n Ships that carry children under age 12 are required to have at least one physician with training in pediatrics or with an equivalent emergency training that involves kids.<\/p>\nWho are the medical personnel?<\/h2>\n