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A Doctor treats a patient in The Sims 4 Get to Work
The Sims 4's Doctor Career comes via the Get to Work Expansion Pack and is one of the most challenging Careers I've ever covered. In this Career, you will start with janitorial duties, interruption of actual Doctors with socials, and patient relations and proceed to being able to run your own tests and diagnose patients. As you go forward, the Career gets more defined although menial tasks will still pop up as objectives. You will eventually be able to perform surgeries and deliver Sim Babies as you advance, while your Sim will also have a clearer picture of what is wrong with the patient as they progress. The Doctor's Career level determines success rate with many interactions. Try to take care of patients as much as possible, and do not misdiagnose them, for fear of losing job performance! This guide should help you with those things, as I have a list of symptoms of each illness, while I'll also share the Doctor's career schedule and rewards.
How to: Doctor Career Cheats
Press Control + Shift + C then type testingcheats on and press enter. You can now get promotions with careers.promote doctor - you can also see all Career Cheats or visit a full list of Cheats in The Sims 4.
The Hospital in Get to Work
The Ideal Mood for this Career is Focused, though it only helps to raise your Sim's work performance bar and does not factor into diagnosing patients. This is best done by using 'Ponder Moves' on a chess table before work or using Browse Simpedia at a computer. While at the hospital, you can use the computer to 'Research Health Reports on Medical Journal' and remain Focused (+2). This helps a lot. You can also hang Mathematical Diagrams (via Logic with an Easel) in the area where Patients are treated. For those who wonder, Logic does not factor into diagnosing at all. Only the symptoms narrowing via Doctor job rank and your own observations.
A mis-diagnosis is a bad thing for a Doctor. You'll take a performance hit when you're wrong about a patient's ailments.
General Advice for Doctors
At level 1, you won't have much to do regarding patients. Try to do things that are nearby in order to raise your performance. You have two days to get promoted, so it should be easy. Don't stay late, because two days is plenty of time to get your first promotion. At level 2, when your objectives change to feature more of treating patients, look for those that have already been diagnosed. This is required for the promotion. They should have a flashing red over them. You can administer the medication, even if you're not quite ready to deliver a full diagnosis. Your Career Performance will go up as you treat patients, though you may have a harder time finishing objectives within the 10-12 hour shift if you do too much of this. You get the little bumps from treating patients, and a big bonus at the end of the day based on the main bar at top left.
The first couple levels, you'll have to talk to co-workers a lot. Thankfully, it will get you through to more interesting objectives.
At level 3, you should see more medical tasks - lots of 'Examine Patient' interactions. You can then Transfer Case to a Doctor after you have done enough tests. Let new objectives come in as you clear them, so that you don't waste time. You may be called to do temperature, then check eyes. Pause to be more time-efficient, as objectives take a moment to come in. When you need to transfer a case, get a Doctor in conversation then use the 'Transfer' interaction to complete this objective. You may need to perform more tests to transfer the case. Again, look for patients with red flashes to deliver treatment. They've already been diagnosed and are ready for medicine.
The Chemical Analyzer is used to test patients' swab samples for diseases
When you do not have a patient to analyze, look to the front desk. You can admit patients to the beds yourself, and will often be forced to. Calibrating the X-ray machine gives you a Focused moodlet. You'll sometimes need to do this in order to get a better X-ray of a patient - Calibrate then 'Refer to X-Ray Scan' on the patient, later found under the Medical Referral menu. Know that the X-ray machine can be upgraded to feature faster scanning and become unbreakable, so long as your Sim has the Handiness Skill. At level 8, you can also upgrade the Analysis machine to make it unbreakable.
The treadmill test may result in narrowing down your diagnosis, but isn't really effective use of time until higher levels in the Career.
Mid Levels
Levels 4-5 can be a little tough, because you're not quite able to diagnose a lot of patients and will fail things like treadmill tests. Try to avoid those until later, while focusing on completing objectives to raise your performance. Try to get the two diagnoses down, but do not fail on them or you may end up losing huge chunks of performance - like a whole day's worth. Make sure you're right by looking at our symptoms list. It may not be as hard for you as it was for me if you can use the process of elimination along with the 'Diagnosing Patients' section below.
This Sim patient has burning belly, a nasty stomach illness that requires surgery
It gets a bit harder to advance from 5-7. Once you need three surgeries, you already have a decent job as a GP, but it will take time to need to do three surgeries. Sims may come in collapsed and need emergency surgery. Just keep at it, and some Sims will eventually need them based on your diagnosis. It may take 2-3 days of work, for there are only the emergencies and three rare types of illness that require surgery. It's easier after that, but you still do some waiting. If you like, you can misdiagnose Sims with Triple Threat or Burnin' Belly, which both require surgery, but that would be unethical!
You will get the ability to boss your coworkers around, but this won't do much, unlike in the Scientist Career where coworkers get promoted and can even be ordered to gather collectibles for you.
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Diagnosing patients requires you to narrow down the symptoms and use some visual cues to help you figure out what's wrong
Diagnosing Patients
Remember, you get only ONE chance to diagnose a patient, and when you come in the next day that patient likely has an entirely different illness. It's random. Logic does not matter for this, nor does being Focused.
The more tests you run, the further you can narrow down a patient's diagnosis. But you will hit a wall and sometimes be left with 2-3 options. Try to do those tests that are tied to objectives, but remember that treating patients also boosts your performance. When possible, do more tests to clear objectives even if you know what ails a Sim. It is more important to do the successful treatments than the objectives, so long as you get silver or up.
A child Sim has diagnostic tests run. This will help to narrow down the symptoms to a specific sickness
The difficulty in this Career comes when you do not know exactly what is wrong with a Sim and can't get it narrowed down further than two or three illnesses. You should be sure to play on speed 1 and watch the patient. Do a test, then back off them and do something with another patient sometimes. This can let you observe the first patient's idle animations. Also, once all tests are done you can initiate regular conversations with them, then back off again. This sometimes gets the symptom animations to trigger.
After you've analyzed a swab, you may later take another, which sometimes will yield a direct result. Here are guidelines for assessing a patient's symptoms, some of which were provided by Dellena on our Forum. We also had extensive help with this list from officialghosts, to whom I owe a lot of thanks for their detail post on the matter, as well as images of symptoms to help you all!. Amaiyasai also contributed information on missing illnesses. Thanks to everyone involved, this guide is much better.
This is by a fairly comprehensive list, and should help you to rule out illnesses. See below the list for images of some symptoms, as well as a breakdown of symptoms and what diseases they could be:
Different rashes come with different illnesses. At the least you know they're definitely sick.
The following set of images are courtesy of officialghosts on our Forum. Use this to help you narrow down illnesses, as I've used their list to help connect each symptom to a disease. If they have one of these symptoms, look up the illnesses above to see if they have other symptoms! You got this. The process of elimination is your friend.
Swirl Rash: it could be starry eyes or triple threat
Tiger Stripe Rash: could be gas and giggles or itchy plumbob
Orange and Green Spots Rash: could be sweaty shivers, itchy plumbob, or llama flu
Dizziness: could be starry eyes or triple threat
Fever: could be burnin' belly or llama flu
Headache: could be bloaty head
Stomach Ache: could be burnin' belly or gas and giggles
Swiping: a telltale sign of starry eyes is the patient swiping, looking like they're trying to bat away a fly.
Cough/Sneeze (no image): could be llama flu or triple threat
Smoke out Ears (no image): you'll know when you see it - it's bloaty head.
Itchiness (no image): could be sweaty shivers or itchy plumbob
Treating Patients
Diagnose an illness by selecting it when you're sure, and the treat option will come up. You'll know right after administering treatment whether it was a success or failure. Find this option on the social menu after you diagnose. Surgery only comes up with Triple Threat, Burnin' Belly, and when you need to deliver a baby at level 8 and up.
House Calls give you Career performance, but aren't necessarily the best use of your time
House Calls
Sometimes, your Doctor will get put on a house call to treat one or more patients. Click the front desk to do this. If you can't arrive within a couple of hours, they will seek help elsewhere. I skipped these a lot of the time, because they came up when I needed surgeries (later learning that you can sometimes refer a Sim to surgery while on a House Call). You can earn plenty of performance just doing duties at the hospital. However, it is time-efficient. You get a nice chunk of the day's performance for delivering the medicines.
The X-ray machine may be upgraded to be faster and auto-calibrate with Handiness. You can also make it unbreakable.
Treadmill and X-Ray tests
Find these under the Medical Referral social menu. These can help to narrow down illnesses, but will have a high failure rate until you're level 7+ in the Career. Until then, try to avoid them or else make sure that your Sim is Focused. A visit to the computer to get a moodlet beforehand can really help with this. Sometimes, you DO have to run the test twice, as the game indicates. They can be super helpful once your Sim is qualified to analyze the results of both tests.
A Doctor delivers a Sim Baby in The Sims 4 Get to Work
Delivering a Baby
This is a work emergency, which will only come up once your Doctor is level 8 and above. It's required to reach level 9. You've simply got to wait this out, and be sure to prioritize this over other patients.
Surgery is required for triple threat, burnin' belly, and delivery of Sim babies
Understaffed Day
There are sometimes days when your Doctor will have to do things like mop puddles, even as a surgeon. These occur on understaffed day, and may be annoying. You can tell if this is a result of a special even by mousing over the top-left workday meter.
Common Objectives
Here are some how-to's and efficiency tips for common tasks:
| Rank | Job | Wages | Schedule | $/Day | Daily Task & Promotion Requirements | Reward for Promotion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medical Intern | $18/hour | Fri-Tue 7AM-3PM | $144/day | Attend an active work day at the Doctor Career venue | N/A |
| 2 | Orderly | $23/hour | Sat-Wed 7AM-3PM | $184/day | Treat Patients (2) | $192, Doctor Xavier Ray's Display, Not So Blind Eye Chart, New Clothes |
| 3 | Medical Assistant | $35/hour | Sun-Thu 8AM-4PM | $280/day | Treat Patients (3) | $256, X-Ray Machines are now available for use at work to scan and exam patients, You can now Give Medical Advice, You can now Give Bad Medical Advice with Level 3 Mischief |
| 4 | Medical Technologist | $49/hour | Mon-Fri 9AM-5PM | $392/day | Successfully Diagnose and Treat a Patient | $312, Defeat the Darkness Surgical Light, Medical Treadmills can now be used further examine patients' conditions, New Clothes |
| 5 | Assistant Nurse | $68/hour | Tue-Wed, Fri, Sun 6AM-4PM | $680/day | Successfully Diagnose and Treat Patients (2) | $384, Restless Thankless Medical Stool, Surgery Tables at work can now be used to treat the most severe patient conditions, You can now Check Hotness |
| 6 | R.N. | $95/hour | Wed-Thu, Sat, Mon 7AM-5PM | $950/day | Successfully Diagnose and Treat Patients (3) | $576, Doctor of Medicine Diploma, Can Now Determine Baby Gender on Pregnant Sims |
| 7 | Doctor - General Practitioner | $135/hour | Thu-Fri, Sun, Tue 8AM-6PM | $1350/day | Perform Surgery on Patients (3) | $816, Seat of Health, New Clothes |
| 8 | Medical Specialist | $195/hour | Sun-Mon, Wed, Fri 9AM-7PM | $1950/day | Deliver a Baby (1) | $1136, The Diligent Doctor's Desk, Sickness Resistance Trait |
| 9 | Surgeon | $245/hour | Wed-Thu, Sat, Mon 9AM-7PM | $2450/day | Successfully Diagnose and Treat Patients (5) | $1496, Skelly Sim |
| 10 | Chief of Staff | $280/hour | Mon-Tue, Thu-Fri 9AM-7PM | $2800/day | Go to Work | $1720, Also unlocks styled room "General Hospital" that costs $7,685 |
Expansion Guide
Retail Guide
Retail: Customers and Sales
Retail: Employees and Managing
Retail Perks in Get to Work
Aliens
Baking Skill Guide
Photography Skill Guide
Detective Career
Doctor Career, Diseases and Diagnosing Patients
Scientist Career
Planet Sixam (Alien World)
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The Sims 4 Seasons expansion now has options! Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
Cottage Living Guide! Here is my guide to new features in the Sims 4 Cottage Living Expansion
You can also find handy Cottage Living Cheats
I have much more to come, since you can actually write a few guides about this pack!
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Snowy Escape Cheats
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Climb Mt. Komorebi
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There is a new platform tool in The Sims 4. There's also a new Sentiments system, but it'll take some time to create a guide to that. Players can also use rental lots in any world now by changing lot types of builds in manage worlds.
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NEW - Nifty Knitting CheatsNew features in the Sims 4 June 2020
The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Guide
Eco Footprint: How it Works
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Civil Designer Career
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This is inspired by a new series in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to the full playlist!
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New I now have a guide to Making Super Sims in The Sims 4. Look for a text version within the next 72h. It won't have THAT much more info but it will help out as a checklist.
This was inspired by a series, "Let's Play a Super Sim" in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to each part for people who are interested. You can also see the Let's Play as a Playlist on Youtube.
The Sims 4 Discover University has been announced for November 15 for PC/Mac and December 17 for Xbox and Playstation 4 consoles. Click to learn more about the pack, see my summary of the livestream or read our FAQs below.
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Comments (74)
There is an open bug report that describes a bug like this that is effecting some games. If you think that is what is happening in your game you could add a 'me too'.
Sims 4 Bug Report Doctor Career
testingcheats on then careers.promote doctor Link to cheats guide.
EA Bug Reprt - No Pregnant Sim in Doctor Career
With the Lab analysis try having your sim being focused before doing it. That might help you get varied responses.
Ideas for Getting sims focused
testingcheats on then careers.promote doctor Link To Cheats Guide
EA Bug Report - No Pregnant Sim in Doctor Career