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What does a cruise ship doctor do?

Cruise doctors provide standard emergency medicine for any ailment that may occur among passengers or staff members of the ship. A medical center on a cruise ship has all the emergency equipment and personnel you will find in a normal hospital.



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Cruise ship doctors work as independent contractors and may charge a basic hourly fee. There will be additional charges for medications and tests. All must be paid for at the time of service and will be billed to your shipboard spending account.

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Depending on the size of the ship and number of passengers and crew members, each RCG ship has two to three licensed doctors and three to five licensed nurses available to passengers and crew members 24/7.

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You will be out on the sea for long periods, so all the people on that ship are the responsibility of the doctors. The clinic hours on a cruise ship may be long and exhausting, so you will work hard for every dollar you earn.

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A medical consultation on a cruise usually costs around $100 (£85) if during medical centre opening hours. This price rises to around $165 (£137) for appointments outside of opening hours and can rise as high as $205 (£170) if a doctor needs to visit a guest's cabin.

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Standard Salaries For Cruise Doctors For senior physicians, it can start at $12,000 and can go as high as $14,000 per month. Not all cruise lines offer the same salary for ship doctors, but you can expect anything from $8,000 up to $14,000.

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Paying for Medical Care While Cruising When you get sick or worse and need treatment or emergency services, you will pay for it, typically out of pocket.

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The amount of experience, the level of education, the grades they received, location, and company all can determine the year's salary. In general, a cruise ship captain salary ranges between $54,000 and more than $100,000. This may seem like a low pay scale considering the responsibilities that come with the job.

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Only if your medical situation requires it will you see a separate area with hospital beds, a small surgical suite where wound suturing and other minor surgeries may be conducted, or the ICU or isolation rooms.

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The short answer: Drink water and go see a doctor. If you experience symptoms of a UTI at sea, respond first by drinking plenty of water. Increasing your urinary flow can slow the progression of a UTI, which is especially important if you do not have immediate access to professional medical care.

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If onboard medical staff deem a passenger to be seriously ill, they will likely have the patient disembarked at the next port of call or evacuated by helicopter to the nearest hospital for more comprehensive treatment.

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U.S. citizens traveling by sea must now have either a U.S. passport, passport card, or other WHTI- compliant document. Be aware that the “enhanced driver's licenses” or “enhanced ID cards” offered by many states are not accepted by Dominican authorities for ferry travel from Puerto Rico.

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Some onboard medical facilities look like urgent care centers, while others are more like doctor's offices. Health insurance often does not cover medical care on cruises, but travel insurance might.

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Original Medicare (Parts A & B) may cover medically necessary health care services on a cruise ship, if the ship you're on when you receive the care is in a U.S. port or no more than 6 hours away from one when you get the services. That means the ship can be in the water, but must be within six hours of a U.S. port.

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They carry a plentiful supply of motion-sickness remedies as well as mild pain medication and antacids. If your condition requires bed rest and monitoring by the ship's medical crew, there are beds available in the infirmary, IV fluid therapy, defibrillators and heart monitors and other widely used medical equipment.

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High Paying Ship Captain Jobs
  • Tugboat Captain. Salary range: $77,500-$118,000 per year. ...
  • Marine Superintendent. Salary range: $36,000-$109,000 per year. ...
  • Port Captain. Salary range: $62,000-$100,000 per year. ...
  • Captain. Salary range: $51,500-$90,000 per year. ...
  • Boat Pilot. Salary range: $76,500-$87,000 per year. ...
  • Vessel Master.


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The salary range for a Cruise Waiter job is from $26,240 to $34,205 per year in the United States. Click on the filter to check out Cruise Waiter job salaries by hourly, weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, monthly, and yearly.

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Most cruise lines offer nurses their own cabin and meals as part of the position. Nurses who routinely work assignments on yachts and cruise lines find the work fun and adventurous.

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Cruise ships do not have police. Instead, an onboard Security Director will oversee the ship's own dedicated security department, staffed by former federal, state and military law enforcement personnel from various countries.

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Depending on the cruise line, some nurses may have the option to bring family members aboard with them. This benefit is sometimes conditional on length of service or limited to a specific number of days per contract.

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While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $102,500 and as low as $14,500, the majority of Cruise Ship Worker salaries currently range between $30,000 (25th percentile) to $58,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $90,000 annually across the United States.

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Ships from the main cruise lines all will have at least one doctor and two nurses onboard. Many larger ships sail with two doctors and three or four nurses. According to American College of Emergency Physician guidelines, ships must have medical staff on call 24 hours.

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