I hoped that the 2nd edition would expand the role of non-magical healing and give some more support to non-magical healers...
Well, let's say that aside of alchemical healing, it isn't nearly as good as I hoped...
The basics: Medicine skill allows single untrained use - Administer First Aid. Like the old Heal skill it allows stabilizing dying creature and stopping bleeding. So far so good, it's really a common sense necessity or the low level characters would die even more than they do.
Fine... Except... Now it requires healer's tools. The new actions rules will help alleviate that a bit, but only to a degree: stride toward the dying comrade, drop weapon and shield (free action), pull out the healer's tools, administer the first aid... Valeros The Third should pray that you won't need to walk more than your stride range or maneuver around enemies to reach him.
This requirement seriously undercuts the utility of untrained Medicine skill use, forcing everyone to carry a healer's tools, and spend more actions than is sensible to disarm themselves, ready tools, and then rearm themselves. And before anyone says that it's unrealistic to administer first aid without healer's tools, I'd counter with the fact that it's equally unrealistic to prevent someone from dying without medical training in the first place.
Possible solution: Either drop the healer's tool requirement, or add a clause allowing the character to use improvised materials to administer first aid, by using available pieces of cloth, etc. Possibly by adding clause that doing so without healer's tools, gives the subject infected 1 condition that would bestow penalties to saving throws against disease and reducing natural healing until properly treated.
I'd also like to propose an additional improvement of this action for trained characters:
Critical success: (trained in Medicine only) The creature at 0 Hit Points gains 1 Hit Point and removes 1 level of dying condition.
The advanced: Those trained in...
Take a look at the Background of Labor which gives you Robust Recovery (pg. 170) which has the prerequisite expert in Medicine. As a first level character unless your GM allows you to spent 2 of your skill points at character creation on Medicine to go from trained to expert so that you have a better chance of healing a wounded character. From Medicine (pg. 153) Treat Disease spending the night (8 hours) you lose the benefit of rest, for a night, to try and help a sick companion. Free Hero Point please as you have sacrificed your hit point recover and or spell recovery. To give a companion a better chance on a die roll to give them a (+2 circumstance bonus or +4 circumstance bonus) to tending to the sick or disease companion to give him a fighting chance to make his Fortitude save. At the lower levels, low magic setting, and or in a magic dead zone this skill could be helpful.