Post by Autumn Stanton on May 10, 2012 17:00:08 GMT -5
There was probably no need for Autumn to be excited as she was, but she simply couldn’t help it. It was a rare thing nowadays for St. Everdines to hire new Healers. Even more so for two of the new additions to the hospital staff to be women. The hospital wasn’t fully staffed by any means, but the heads weren’t exactly groveling for new help. They also used the excuse of budgets when defending their choice not to hire new Healers. She had always found it a bit odd considering St. Everdines wasn’t exactly suffering in the financial department, but never spoke up as it wasn’t her place. However, it didn’t make her any less frustrated when she was called to work seven shifts in a week as opposed to her supposedly mandated six. Or when she had to stay at the hospital an extra two or three hours after her shift to assist with an overflow of patients and not enough Healers to tend to them all. The higher ups always promised changes, yet it was rare for Autumn or any of her co-workers to see them. The last big thing had been soundproofing the sleep rooms for the Healers on call and that had taken a year after the request had been made. Still, she loved what she did, the people she worked with and for, and the hospital in general. This had been her calling from an early age and she had no intention of letting it slip through her grasp. If that meant having to sacrifice her free time just to be an extra hand, so be it. Autumn always did whatever needed to be done to show her commitment to the hospital and its inhabitants.
The selfish part of her had been unable to contain the excitement at the thought of a little extra downtime though. The news about the recent hiring of five new Healers had been brought to the attention of the Everdines staff last week. There would be three new men and two women. Even better, they all had previous experience. It wasn’t that Autumn discouraged squeaky clean, just out on their own Healers. That was how she had been when she first started here. It was just that they still had to be babysat and made sure that proper protocols were being followed. When that had to be attended to on top of ten patients to make rounds for, it was more stress than necessary. Her own ‘mentor’ had plastered a kind smile to her face when she had first started, but she saw the tired looks and slight irritation whenever she asked a question that her mentor felt she should have known. It was why she did her best to keep her mouth shut and figure things out on her own as to not bother her or anyone else for that matter. The new additions to St. Everdines already had their medical knowledge down pact. All they would need would be tours around the hospital, knowledge of the rules and procedures and they should be squared. Autumn had no doubts in the ability of her bosses to hire people who knew what they were doing. The hospital had always had a reputation for having some of the most talented and medically-intelligent Healers in the country. They would never allow that image to be maimed in any way.
What had made her even more eager about the arrival of the new Healers was that Autumn would be showing one of them around. The woman’s name was Katharine Makari. She was from England originally and despite not having as extensive as a medical career as the other Healers, she had enough experience to impress the Head Healer of Everdines. Autumn felt proud that she had been selected to look after Katharine and to welcome her in the hospital’s family. As selective they were about hiring, her bosses were also selective about choosing the Healers to serve as mentors for the new additions. By choosing her, they had enough confidence in her abilities to thoroughly give the woman a rundown of the inner-workings of St. Everdines. She simply couldn’t disappoint them, nor Katharine. Within the next week, she had spent all of her free time devoting herself to her knowledge of St. Everdines. She was confident that she knew the floor plans, names of all the staff, where to find necessary equipment and the like, but Autumn forced herself to review over and over again. She didn’t want to give the woman any sort of wrong information that might hinder her experience here. She wanted her to love it at Everdines just as much as she did. Some of her co-workers had laughed at her, saying that she knew all there was to know about the hospital. Others said nothing, not surprised at all by her actions since they all knew how she was. For the ones who did speak up, she merely smiled and explained her reasoning. They tended to still think she was a little over obsessive but it didn’t matter. They weren’t the ones being introduced to Everdines for the first time.
When the day finally came Autumn had arrived at the hospital bright and early as usual. She had grabbed a cup of coffee from the cafeteria and headed up to the second floor where her tiny office was. Though her office was small, it was her own. After being here a year, all Healers were promoted to offices on the ground floor but had to share with others. After three years, they were permitted to move up a floor to an office of their own. Fifth years went to another floor with a bigger office and so on and so forth. Autumn was looking forward to the day when she received her post for office reassignment. For now she was comfortable having her own space in the hospital. Approaching the third door at the end of the hallway on the left, she pulled her office key from the pocket of her sky blue scrubs and slid it in the lock. She jiggled it towards the right and pushed the door open upon hearing the click of the lock. Her hand went to the right and turned the light on, illuminating the cozy room she had made her own. Dropping her bag in the corner, she closed the door and made her way around her desk to her chair. She took a seat and released a heavy sigh. Fifteen minutes until Katharine was supposed to arrive. Autumn knew she could get a few things done until then. Leaning across the desk, her hand went for a manila folder that she had been looking over the past couple of days. It was the patient file for a man that had been attacked by a male blast-ended skrewt several weeks ago. After being stung repeatedly, he was admitted to St. Everdines to the first floor. Normally able to cure such ailments, this man had been particularly difficult to treat due to the poison that he had been injected with. She wasn’t sure if the skrewt that had stung him had been infected with something, but some sort of abnormality in the poison made their normal treatments ineffective.
Autumn had been studying the man and his file ever since he had arrived. She had carefully looked over the medicines that had been administered and the procedures he had undergone to rid his system of the poison. She had looked to see if she could combine one treatment with another or eliminate one altogether but had yet to find anything that seemed suitable enough to try. Rolling over to her bookshelf, she grabbed a heavy book from the second shelf. It was a magical herb medical book she had been pouring through to see if anything had stood out. Sliding back to her desk, she dropped the book on the surface and flipped open to the page she had last left off on.
The selfish part of her had been unable to contain the excitement at the thought of a little extra downtime though. The news about the recent hiring of five new Healers had been brought to the attention of the Everdines staff last week. There would be three new men and two women. Even better, they all had previous experience. It wasn’t that Autumn discouraged squeaky clean, just out on their own Healers. That was how she had been when she first started here. It was just that they still had to be babysat and made sure that proper protocols were being followed. When that had to be attended to on top of ten patients to make rounds for, it was more stress than necessary. Her own ‘mentor’ had plastered a kind smile to her face when she had first started, but she saw the tired looks and slight irritation whenever she asked a question that her mentor felt she should have known. It was why she did her best to keep her mouth shut and figure things out on her own as to not bother her or anyone else for that matter. The new additions to St. Everdines already had their medical knowledge down pact. All they would need would be tours around the hospital, knowledge of the rules and procedures and they should be squared. Autumn had no doubts in the ability of her bosses to hire people who knew what they were doing. The hospital had always had a reputation for having some of the most talented and medically-intelligent Healers in the country. They would never allow that image to be maimed in any way.
What had made her even more eager about the arrival of the new Healers was that Autumn would be showing one of them around. The woman’s name was Katharine Makari. She was from England originally and despite not having as extensive as a medical career as the other Healers, she had enough experience to impress the Head Healer of Everdines. Autumn felt proud that she had been selected to look after Katharine and to welcome her in the hospital’s family. As selective they were about hiring, her bosses were also selective about choosing the Healers to serve as mentors for the new additions. By choosing her, they had enough confidence in her abilities to thoroughly give the woman a rundown of the inner-workings of St. Everdines. She simply couldn’t disappoint them, nor Katharine. Within the next week, she had spent all of her free time devoting herself to her knowledge of St. Everdines. She was confident that she knew the floor plans, names of all the staff, where to find necessary equipment and the like, but Autumn forced herself to review over and over again. She didn’t want to give the woman any sort of wrong information that might hinder her experience here. She wanted her to love it at Everdines just as much as she did. Some of her co-workers had laughed at her, saying that she knew all there was to know about the hospital. Others said nothing, not surprised at all by her actions since they all knew how she was. For the ones who did speak up, she merely smiled and explained her reasoning. They tended to still think she was a little over obsessive but it didn’t matter. They weren’t the ones being introduced to Everdines for the first time.
When the day finally came Autumn had arrived at the hospital bright and early as usual. She had grabbed a cup of coffee from the cafeteria and headed up to the second floor where her tiny office was. Though her office was small, it was her own. After being here a year, all Healers were promoted to offices on the ground floor but had to share with others. After three years, they were permitted to move up a floor to an office of their own. Fifth years went to another floor with a bigger office and so on and so forth. Autumn was looking forward to the day when she received her post for office reassignment. For now she was comfortable having her own space in the hospital. Approaching the third door at the end of the hallway on the left, she pulled her office key from the pocket of her sky blue scrubs and slid it in the lock. She jiggled it towards the right and pushed the door open upon hearing the click of the lock. Her hand went to the right and turned the light on, illuminating the cozy room she had made her own. Dropping her bag in the corner, she closed the door and made her way around her desk to her chair. She took a seat and released a heavy sigh. Fifteen minutes until Katharine was supposed to arrive. Autumn knew she could get a few things done until then. Leaning across the desk, her hand went for a manila folder that she had been looking over the past couple of days. It was the patient file for a man that had been attacked by a male blast-ended skrewt several weeks ago. After being stung repeatedly, he was admitted to St. Everdines to the first floor. Normally able to cure such ailments, this man had been particularly difficult to treat due to the poison that he had been injected with. She wasn’t sure if the skrewt that had stung him had been infected with something, but some sort of abnormality in the poison made their normal treatments ineffective.
Autumn had been studying the man and his file ever since he had arrived. She had carefully looked over the medicines that had been administered and the procedures he had undergone to rid his system of the poison. She had looked to see if she could combine one treatment with another or eliminate one altogether but had yet to find anything that seemed suitable enough to try. Rolling over to her bookshelf, she grabbed a heavy book from the second shelf. It was a magical herb medical book she had been pouring through to see if anything had stood out. Sliding back to her desk, she dropped the book on the surface and flipped open to the page she had last left off on.
