"Oh, you're asking the wrong person for that," she says as sops up more soup, her bread bowl now looking precariously thin around the edges. "If I try for a minute I can remember stuff Lucy or Sarah found surprising, and if I try harder I can think of stuff I don't remember seeing in media, but... I dunno, I guess the most common stuff are things people say as part of conversation? Lucy and I went to a restaurant once and these two women were arguing over whether or not they should cast a weather ritual to help put out some fires in California... or like, one was saying it was too risky, because of the ecological effects of messing with the weather, and the other was kind of offended, like her methods were being questioned? I remember her kind of lifting her chin and insisting that any ritual she casts of course takes into account ecological effects... it was really fascinating, to Luce, but I've been overhearing stuff like that all my life."

She shrugs. "And people are a lot more superstitious, here. Not as much at the hospital, but like, you'll see a lot of folks putting out saucers of milk on their windowsills at night, or throwing salt over their shoulder, or tying red string onto things. I never really know how many of them believe it all does something, if you know what I mean? Whether it's the weather rituals or the salt, it just sort of all feels like people being people, believing in some things for good reasons and not really thinking about why they do or believe the other stuff. I asked my mom once if she actually thought the house shrine did anything... mostly I was wondering if she'd get upset if I didn't set one up in my apartment. But she just shrugged and said it made her feel better to have it, and she didn't make a fuss about me not having one, so I guess she's not, like, deep into that sort of thing."

"Huh. Yeah, it would definitely feel kind of surreal to be randomly overhearing that sort of conversation in a restaurant!"

There's a version of 'everyone is superstitious and into woo' that would drive Marian up the wall, but - hopefully this isn't that? It doesn't sound like people are pushy about it. She's glad to be warned but - assuming they offer her the job at all - it feels like a silly reason to turn it down when everything else about it is great. 

"Yeah, that tracks with how most outsiders feel. When I try to imagine not hearing conversations like that once in a while it's a bit surreal in reverse, but Lucy admitted that she did overhear things like, one woman telling another one how drinking a bit of super diluted soap with some sage and thyme in it would solve her arthritis in a New York cafe, so it doesn't seem that different elsewhere, to me."

"...Ew? I haven't heard that many conversations like that but I think maybe Ottawa is just a super boring city." Slight laugh. "Or I don't get out enough." 

"Well, I'd be interested to hear more about Ottawa sometime, and I'll let you know if it gets too boring." Mallory has mostly finished her soup, and is now eating the soup-drenched remainder of the bowl. "Next up for you is basic tech competence stuff, right? And then you're heading home tomorrow?"

"Yeah. - I'd thought about staying longer, but, uh, I haven't actually given notice at my job in Canada yet, so I need to get back ASAP." 

"Oh, yeah that makes sense! I was going to offer to show you around town, but offer open if you end up coming back."

A young woman not dressed in uniform with a full tray of food comes by, eyes scanning the room, then spots Marian and walks over. "Hi, are you Marian? If so, the Nurse Educator told me to let you know she's ready for you in," she checks the clock. "Nine minutes or so."

"I would love that if I do end up coming back!" 

Marian smiles at the young woman. "Thanks for letting me know! ...Uh, we haven't been introduced, have we?" Maybe she's one of the names that was mentioned at various points that Marian definitely didn't retain all of? 

"Oh, uh, no, I'm Linda. I'm here for an interview." She flashes a slight smile, says "Good luck," and wanders off to sit with some others.

"Same to you! Thanks for letting me know!"

And Marian is not going to repeat the mistake she made last time, especially since it's a bit of a longer walk from here to the nurse educator's office. She'll thank Mal warmly for her various advice and info on the town, and say goodbye in case they don't run into each other again before she leaves, and then she's going to go over EARLY and hover nearby rather than risk being late. 

The hospital is quiet and peaceful. Occasionally someone passes by and gives her a curious look, but no one is rushing or looking stressed. The general sense she gets is that, today at least, the hospital is a place of calm people going about their work, focused and diligent.

Eventually it's time, and before she can reach for the door a middle-aged redhead steps out. "Ah, you must be Marian? Good timing. I'm Rachel." She shakes her hand. "This way to the training rooms. How are you finding Haven so far?"

"Pleased to meet you. The town is beautiful! And I like basically everything I've seen about this hospital, so far." 

She'll follow. She's pretty curious what this meeting is going to consist of; they didn't get much orientation to the equipment or computers at Montfort, and definitely none of it was at the interview stage. 

"Glad to hear. It's more than twice as big as the town I grew up in, so it's always hard to see it from an outsider's view."

They reach the rooms, passing by what looks like a small class with chairs facing a whiteboard to enter a room full of various equipment, from an IV stand to defibrillators, along with some lifelike mannequins in various positions on beds.

"So, this is going to be the last bit of your interview, and I know you're tired so I'm sorry you ended up having yours after dinner; I've been busy with our other applicants earlier." She has a clipboard and pen, which she clicks and starts to write with. "This is mostly a basic check of ability, so don't feel too nervous, alright? We just want to make sure if there are any pieces of equipment or basic procedures you'd benefit from extra training on, we're aware of it before a potential hire. Do you have any questions before we begin?"

Ohhh they have their own sim lab that's so cool. She's not surprised to notice that the mannequins looks vastly less decrepit than what the University of Ottawa nursing school had. 

This is fine. She doesn't love demonstrating Nursing Skills while Being Observed (and what the heck is Rachel writing already, she hasn't started yet), but it was mostly awful in school and now, like, she knows what she's doing? Mostly? At least, she's going to tell herself very firmly that there is no need to be stressed about this. If any of them are equipment models she's not familiar with because Canada uses different ones, or if she's confused about what she should be doing, she can just say that, there's absolutely no reason why it should be too embarrassing. 

"Not yet, I don't think?" 

"Great. I think we'll start over there, with cardiac monitoring and interventions..."

Testing time! Various different ones, not rushed or timed but with an ever-watchful Rachel occasionally jotting things down. Nothing she encounters is particularly new or challenging for her, and Rachel seems pleased throughout.

Marian still isn’t the biggest fan of being Observed, but - just like with the interview - she relaxes within the first few minutes and ends up actually kind of having fun.

In what feels like just a short time, Rachel is looking around the room after finishing jotting a few more notes down, and the clock on the wall tells her an hour has passed since she entered. She's gone through most of the room, and after a moment Rachel turns back to her with a smile.

"I'm trying to think of something that might challenge you, but it looks like you know your stuff front and back. Is there anything in here you haven't used before, or don't know how to as well as you'd like?"

Oooh! Marian would not necessarily choose to sign up for a challenge if she weren't confident she had done impressively well on everything else, but at this point she feels good and is having fun and, like, in real life (as opposed to Being Observed With A Clipboard) she does actually really like challenges! 

"Uh, I'm not trained on ECMO - our hospital didn't have the capability to do it, I think I only even saw it once at the big hospital where I did my final clinical. I'm - okay, I'll admit I'm kind of scared of it, but it would also be really cool to be trained on it someday...?" 

She spotted what she THINKS is an ECMO machine in the room but she, uh, has not actually worked with it enough before to be sure. 

"Oh, sure. We've got a bit of time, and I like to see applicants learning new things." She leads her over to the machine Marian correctly guessed was the one. "We've got one for patients and this one for training and as backup. You may know there are two main types, VA and VV?" Rachel sets her clipboard aside and points. "VA-ECMO supports both the heart and lungs, and the setup process takes some doing. First we want to check each part looks okay. This pump circulates the blood from the patient to the ECMO circuit and back. Oxygenator gets it into the blood, and removes carbon dioxide. The heat exchanger, here, regulates temperature. Finally, the cannulae and tubing that connect to the patient. Once we're sure it's all properly clean and intact, begin by priming the circuit." She starts to fill the tubing with saline. "You'll connect the saline bag to the ECMO circuit and open the clamps to allow the solution to flow through. Check for air bubbles, then we move on to cannulation, which is the fun part that the working surgeon or ECMO specialist will be doing. We'll see if we can get you in to assist the next few time it's in use, after some more focused training, so you can get certified."

Rachel stretches the cannulae out. "Each cannula finds a central vein and a central artery. Once they're in place, you'll connect them to the ECMO circuit. Start the pump at a low speed to gradually initiate blood flow through the circuit." She points at the monitor. "Watch the flow rates, pressures, oxygen, and carbon dioxide rates close. Also, keep an eye on the patient's hemoglobin and hematocrit levels. With me so far?"

Marian is with her so far! This is extremely cool and also, uh, definitely more terrifying than dialysis, which just involves a central vein. All the actual subcomponents of the process that would be her job are fine and make sense, though, it's mostly just abstractly very scary. 

"Everything makes sense but I think I'd want, uh, to spend a lot of time making sure I really know the normal flow rates and pressures and stuff, before I'd be comfortable handling this solo?" Right now it's all Just Numbers, and you can cheat on that by setting alarms but Marian prefers to also have the alarms going off in her brain and not just on the machines. 

Rachel smiles. "Of course. Main things you'll want to watch out for, and we'll cover this in regular training if you come for that, are clot formation in the circuit and air embolisms. If you notice clotting, you may need to administer anticoagulants or replace the oxygenator." She demonstrates. "In case of air embolism, immediately clamp the circuit and follow emergency protocols. If the pump fails, you have to manually pump the blood using hand cranks until you can switch to a backup pump. Hopefully someone else will be available to come help with that."

She starts to return things to how they were. "Other than that, it's standard monitoring. Check for bleeding and infection at the cannulation sites, make sure they're comfortably sedated. We'll go over the sorts of adjustments you might need to make if any of the numbers stray too far in the bad directions. We can do a few training sessions once you've got your normal weekly schedule down. How does that sound?"