Originally Posted by
chococat
All physicians may not feel comfortable volunteering to help in a possible medical emergency-- for example, a non-practicing physician who is involved primarily in research, or a physician in a specialty that has not thought about emergency medicine in decades. I'm not sure what the liability is if a physician volunteers his/her services when he/she is not really qualified to provide assistance and the outcome is negative-- this could possibly considered malpractice since the physician is outside his/her scope of practice.
That's a good point -- the expectations of a surgeon, an internist, a paramedic, a basic EMT, and a dermatologist are all different. For me, I think the expectation I have for myself is that if someone is in need, you provide whatever you can within your abilities. I wou;dn't feel badly if a patient died of a brain aneurysm in front of me, since I cant do surgery there in the airport or plane or supermarket. But I do know how to open an airway and hold pressure on a bleed.
The good samaritan laws also recognize that in a plane, etc -- out of the office or hospital -- that we don't have the normal tools that we need. It's more a moral requirement to help, at least for me.