Some questions regarding ambulance drivers

[TeaTime]

Are nurses or doctors more effective as drivers? What skills should your drivers be learning, or is it best for them to learn 5 levels of the driving skill?

[nadjiggle]

Assuming they have the same skills, I believe they perform identically. Nurses are cheaper, though. I don't know what the additional driving skills add, so I'm not sure what to recommend. If you give them diag skills, then the patients arrive with more diagnosis percentage, and take up less time in the hospital3

[airadine]

Yeah I've been trying to figure out what the extra driving skill or flying skills give them. It doesn't seem to be anything.

[Shaboopy-Nubbins]

Originally posted by nadjiggle:

Assuming they have the same skills, I believe they perform identically. Nurses are cheaper, though. I don't know what the additional driving skills add, so I'm not sure what to recommend. If you give them diag skills, then the patients arrive with more diagnosis percentage, and take up less time in the hospital3

Oh i didn't even think of this. Diag monsters combo'd with speed racer skills. Yes yes yes

[6211]

I have the same question and searching if anyone asked about this. Good that I found this page. :)
Yes, I tried to have the nurses to do the driving as they have a cheaper wage. But I am wondering if it will make a difference with a doctor driving.
I guess the higher the driving skill, the faster it reaches the destination? May be three driving skills and 2 diagnosis is good?

[Lamon]

Can' Nurses even drive an ambulance or helo? I have one with a skill but he will not go like 80% of the time when I dispatch. I drop him near the ambulance and it says Nurse cannot work in ambulance station and he doesn't move. If I drop him in hospital he just looks for work.

This has been happening a lot to me. If i save and quit and reload it will fix it until it happens again.

[nadjiggle]

Originally posted by Lamon:

Can' Nurses even drive an ambulance or helo? I have one with a skill but he will not go like 80% of the time when I dispatch. I drop him near the ambulance and it says Nurse cannot work in ambulance station and he doesn't move. If I drop him in hospital he just looks for work.

This has been happening a lot to me. If i save and quit and reload it will fix it until it happens again.

If it says "will not work in ambulance station", that's not the right place to drop him. it's different for each ambulance, you have to stick them right next to the door. That's at the side for the road ones and duckie balloon, and in front for the Relicopter and portaloo.

Not sure why he doesn't just work by himself though. Has he definitely got the appropriate ambulances checked on the job assignment screen?

[TeaTime]

Some updates with things I've learned,

Between nurses and doctors, nurses would be less expensive as drivers/pilots.

With regards to skills, I've been going for a balanced approach of a 2/3 split for driving and diagnosis, depending on which convenience is more important.

That said, if I really wanted to specialize the drivers, the builds would be 5 in driving, or 1 in driving and 4 in diagnosis. I haven't tried this yet.

Also, 3 in driving is fast enough to get the 20 patients in the Pantomobile achievement.

[Giblets]

are you sure driver with diag skills are diagnosing patients from the ambulance?

[Freiya]

Yes, I tested the system a bit and the basic "Diagnostics" skill increases how much patients in the ambulance are diagnosed. So you have to choose between better diagnosis or better speed.

I tested ward and GP skills just in case and they didn't have any effect, I also didn't see any difference between doctors and nurses so far. It means that it's much better to recruit nurses to drive ambulances since they are cheaper as others said.

[Giblets]

I've just started level one but the there's mention of some emergency being treated but he driver so i would assume those ones would need treatment skills