Healer

Healers, nurses, and midwives are spread through Albion - specialists and a number of others are based in Trellech at the Temple of Healing, but larger communities outside Trellech have their own healer, and smaller villages have someone who makes a regular circuit. (See Healing for details about healing magic.)

Education

Healers generally attend Alethorpe, with its focus on practical magic, but a number also come from Schola and a few are privately educated. They then complete an extensive apprenticeship over the course of 8 to 10 years. Healers and nurses make specific oaths to a particular deity of healing. For most people this is a solemn commitment they take seriously, but doesn't mean they are particularly religiously devoted. However, most people based at the Temple of Healing have some degree of obligation to help tend the shrine and other spaces associated with the deity they're sworn to, or help maintain the general public space offerings. Some specific positions at the Temple do require someone to be a sworn priest or priestess. (See Rhoe Belisama.) Healers who also interact with the non-magical community usually go through non-magical medical training, with supplemental training in the magical approaches wherever they can fit it in (with appropriate levels of certification as they progress). Paying for treatment is a mix: people who can pay privately are encouraged to do so, or at least contribute to the costs. Employers are generally expected to pay for work-related injuries or illnesses (and for precautions to avoid them, as relevant). More on this below.

Types of work

Healers

Equivalent to our doctors, Healers are the one with the focused training for providing direct application of healing-focused magic. They learn to draw on the vitality of nurses (and in a pinch, orderlies and other available staff) to fuel that, as well as how to apply the best charms and methods for specific conditions, as well as physical techniques from non-magical medicine. Most pick a speciality or focus of some kind - infectious disease, chronic debilitating illness, handling accidents and injuries, treating infection, etc. Healers are about evenly divided between men and women, though there tend to be slightly more men in influential administrative roles.

Nurses

Nurses do the bulk of day to day healing care, with a variety of charms to help with comfort (cooling, warming, cushioning, tending to injuries and preventing infection) but also a wide range of charms meant to help someone's magic recover. These are referred to in Carry On, there's a standard set in wide use. Nurses are predominantly women, but about a fifth men.

Midwives

Midwives are focused on delivering healthy babies, usually working with women from when they realise they're pregnant through the first six months of the baby's life (sometimes longer, if there are ongoing health concerns, though usually in collaboration with other Healers.) Most midwives work in collaborative collectives to provide coverage. Rosemary Ditson is an example.

Related professions

Orderlies work in the Temple of Healing, the Temple of Youth, and various care homes to manage physical needs of the patients or residents - helping with bathing, transportation, lifting and turning. (Several orderlies appear in Carry On.) All the healing professions work closely with apothecaries who focus on the creation of potions, salves, oils, and other approaches. Some of their items are purely medicinal, others are infused with magic to support the healing purposes. They can use a wide range of materials, meaning there's a wide range of possible costs.

Employment and income

Payment for treatment has a mix of sources.

Private income

Healers, nurses, and midwives can all set up privately, outside the Temples or formal healing infrastructure, and a number of Healers who also work in those places may maintain a private practice for some clients. In this case, the client pays for the services (time, training, materials) directly.

Temple

For those employed by one of the Temples or related care homes, their salary is paid by the Temple. The Temple pays for this through a combination of (modest) taxation, fees for services from those who can pay, and fundraising to help cover costs for people who can't. Staff who work for the Temple may supplement their income in various ways.

Employers

Employers are expected to cover costs for work-related injuries. The exception is if there's a truly random action the employer could not have reasonably prevented. (If you work with horses, and a horse kicks you and injures you, that's on your employer. If you are in the market for your employer and a cranky horse turns around and kicks you, that's a random act. If you go to the pub on your lunch break, and a tree falls through the roof and hurts you, that's not on your employer, it's probably a random act unless the pub owner knew the tree was a problem. If you are on your way back from lunch and a bridge washes out and you have a nasty fall, it's not on your employer, but might be on the local Lord or whoever was supposed to maintain the bridge. Sorting out this kind of thing when there's a disagreement is a non-trivial part of what the judicial system does.) However, the employer may treat it locally (without involving the Healers initially), or maintain their own staff or supplies to deal with routine matters. (See On The Bias for an example.) However, it's rare for a Healer to be employed solely by one estate or family. During the Great War, this got very complicated for War-related injuries. Carry On gets into some of the implications.