"South Wing next," Amanda says as they pass back the rest of the way through the central building and through another long hallway. "Maternity, pediatrics, women's health, child care. We had 210 births last year, the highest in Haven's record." Her tone is proud. "A lot of towns are shrinking, but we've got good stock here in Haven. A lot of mothers go the at-home route, and our infant mortality is very low too, thanks be to Spring blessings. We expect the numbers to keep going up, so if you ever want to shadow a maternity nurse during off hours, we'll pay time-and-a-half to have more flexibility among the staff."

"Wow!" Marian isn't sure what she means by 'Spring blessings' - either it's some kind of postnatal support program, which would be pretty cool, or it's a religious thing which would be awkward to ask about - but that does sound like a lot of babies for a town of this population! (Not enough that you would expect to see that much infant mortality either way, surely, she's pretty sure the national rate is X-in-thousands not X-in-hundreds.) 

"And, neat, I'll keep that in mind." She's about 1000% more interested in maternity than psych, so she might even end up taking them up on it. 

Amanda seems to pick up on her interest, and beams at her before leading the way through the rest of the wing, including going upstairs to show her the maternity ward, including the nursery, where a pair of twins are currently resting.

"We'll take a skyway to the East wing, which has surgical suites and recovery." The end of the hall opens into a glass corridor, which the slowly setting sun and riot of Autumn colors paints gold and orange and red from the trees around it. "How are you holding up so far? Any questions for me? I know I'm throwing a lot at you."

"Uh, I'm probably not going to remember everyone's name you're telling me about, but the rest is fine?" Marian is peering around the glass corridor at the view. "Wow, I think this is the prettiest architecture I've ever seen in a hospital." 

"Isn't it? There are pictures of the old hospital on the history wall of the main building, I imagine it's more what you'd expect. But Mr. Hannover had some conditions for how the money would be spent, and time proofing Haven's institutions was part of it. You should check out the town hall, it's gorgeous." They pass into the Eastern wing, and walk through halls with pale blue and cream walls. "And here are our various surgery suites and recovery rooms. Do you collaborate with OR staff often at your current hospital?" 

A normal amount? Actually Marian really has no way of knowing what a normal amount is. "Sometimes we have to send patients to the OR urgently - or they're being admitted urgently from the OR - and we call reports or go pick up patients there? I don't know if Haven Hospital has closer collaboration than that?" 

They're passing by the nursing station at the center of the wing now, where one nurse is on the phone and another two are looking over a patient chart. "Those both sound right, but yes, there's also the bi-monthly meeting to check if there's anything extra that needs to be done, for either current patients or lessons learned from past ones." They make their way down the stairs, and emerge into the first floor of the wing. There are waiting areas around them, with comfy-looking furniture and walls paneled with dark wood, lit by warm light. "We want to make sure every voice is heard, here. After all, if we didn't think someone had something to offer, why hire them?"

Oh wow they actually do the best practices thing! That’s really cool! (Possibly Marian should be embarrassed that Montfort doesn't, but she’s mostly just impressed and pleased.)

Also, wow, that’s the classiest waiting room she’s ever seen. Forget about uncomfortable chairs and industrial carpet and flickery fluorescent lighting, this feels like an upscale hotel lobby or something. Having a wealthy benefactor funding the hospital is clearly a pretty sweet deal.

“That makes a lot of sense! Sounds like a really good idea.”

"It helps in countless little ways, including making us all feel a little more like family." Amanda leads her through the rest of the wing, away from the waiting rooms and partway down a wide hallway that has massive elevators further down, and a wide pair of swinging doors on the far end. "Our ambulance bay is down that way, but we'll head to the last wing through one of the staff doors, just so you're aware of all the options. Every wing has a few." They pass through a supply room that has a back door marked EXIT, and then they're out in the fading sunlight and mild Autumn chill.

Amanda takes a deep breath as she starts walking along a path that leads to the final wing. "And here we finally arrive at your potential home away from home. General inpatient care is on the first floor, ICU on the second, and as usual, administration and staff rooms on the third." They reach another unmarked door and she uses a keycard to open it, leading in through another supply room and out on the far side of the reception desk.

The walls are pale grey with hints of blue or pink or yellow, like a drizzly sky cloaking a sunset, and various potted plants and landscape paintings adorn the walls. They take the stairs up two flights, and soon they're at an office door with a plaque on it that reads Carla Foster - ICU Nurse Manager on it. A quick knock, and then...

"Hey Amanda. Hi, Marian, I'm Carla." She steps out and briefly grips Marian's hand. "How are you finding Haven so far?"

“It’s a lovely town and the hospital is gorgeous! And you guys seem really well run."

Oh no did she just out herself as someone whose previous hospital workplace wasn't well run and who therefore doesn't have the type of experience they're looking for. Job interviews are terrible. 

Carla smiles, or half smiles, one side rising while the other mostly just quirks in a wryly amused way that makes it hard to tell if she's smiling with her or at her or something in between.

"We'd like to think so." She turns to the CNO. "See you at the panel later, Amanda."

"Yes, see you there. Good luck, Marian!" Amanda gives her shoulder a friendly(? reassuring?) squeeze, then heads off in the direction of the main building.

That's...weird...ugh what is Carla thiiinking, Marian is reviewing what she just said and it was mostly just polite and generic. She doesn't think that half-smile is Carla deciding to probably not hire her because she's too impressed with their hospital meeting the very low bar of following best practices? Also, like, they're clearly trying to impress her, she thinks, maybe mostly with how much money they have but still. 

- anyway she's definitely overthinking this now and needs to focus on the rest of her interview and making a good impression on Carla. And, like, she is actually qualified for this job, it's not like she's trying to get one past them even though the entire concept of job interviews always feels like that. 

She looks attentively at Carla. 

Carla looks attentively back at her.

Or maybe consideringly.

Or evaluatingly.

And then she nods, seemingly to herself. "So, what made you leave Montfort?"

Because it turned out she could get paid a lot more money probably not the correct answer for an interview and it's not even really true, she started looking before that. 

"I learned a lot there - I actually started before graduating nursing school, there was a mentorship program - but it felt like time to move on?"

Arghhh what's the correct level of honest to be here.

"It's a small hospital in a city with a lot of bigger hospitals, which I think is a kind of different experience from somewhere like Haven Hospital? There were some kinds of patients we didn't really see because they would go to one of the bigger centers. And it was kind of, like, chronically under-resourced and understaffed, which - it's not that that's not educational but it - affects the culture?"

Probably a job interview is also not the place to complain about how this resulted in not firing Isobel even though she was, in addition to a bully, bafflingly racist, and management was fully aware of her being a problem and actually very sympathetic to Marian pleading to never work the same shifts as her ever, and just couldn't actually fire someone who, for all her frustrating traits as a person, is actually a very competent nurse and would pick up a ton of overtime. 

Small shrug. "I felt like I was ready for something new." 

Carla studies her throughout, then nods again, slower. "So to be a happy you, say, a year from now, you'll have had new nursing experiences, while being in a better hospital culture, and under fewer constraints. That picture sound right? Missing anything?"

"That sounds pretty great!" And also have twice as much money in her savings account, that would be cool too. "I guess it is also a plus to live somewhere different for a while - my parents are always, like, this is the time in your life when you can move around easily. But that's not really about the hospital specifically." 

"Well, Haven's certainly different. Come on, I'll show you around this floor, then we'll work our way down."

Staff offices! Conference rooms! Lockers and showers! Break lounge (with small kitchen and some comfy couches)! Training suite!

"IT is the door at the end of that hall, in case a computer or piece of tech is acting up. Files and charts that way. We're going more and more digital, but it's a slow process, and there are still regulations to follow. Are you tech savvy? I can never tell which youngsters will or won't be."

"I think I'm reasonably tech savvy?" Not compared to some of her Internet friends but definitely compared to her average Montfort colleague, at least. "I took a programming class as an elective in college and stuff." 

Ooh and this does actually give her an opening to talk about Relevant Job Experience. "Montfort was working on digitizing too - when I started they used this ancient custom-written EMR, like, all black and white and it only responded to the F keys, and orders and med records were all still on paper. Last year we moved to Epic and yeah it was a whole process." 

Carla smiles. "Our EMR had color, but that's about the only improvement from what you're describing. Four colors, to be precise. A few years ago Massachusetts required use of MassPAT for any medication prescribers, and we moved to Epic for integration as well. Glad you'll be familiar with that part of things, at least. We have some staff here who really don't mix well with technology, and while we've taken steps to make sure that's not anyone else's problem, it gets more costly the fewer people can handle themselves."

They reach some stairs. "That about does it for this floor. Bottom is general inpatient which I think we'll do next, and then the ICU. Any questions before we head down?"

"I think not yet. I guess I'm curious how you have Epic set up but that's kind of getting into specifics."

Hopefully the staff who "really don't mix well" with technology doesn't include too many doctors. 

First floor nursing station! It looks nice and modern, with space enough for six people to sit in a hexagonal pattern, from which anyone can look down at least two of the four hallways branching around them. General units that way, surgical units that way, step-down units that way, and more really comfortable-looking family waiting spaces in the direction of the main building. Carla takes her through each of the halls so she can get familiar with them. They spot a few nurses making the rounds, most of whom smile and wave at Carla and/or Marian, and one doctor who's talking to a patient being prepped for surgery.