Basic Info on Healer Craft
Minimum Age - Rank Earth Equivalent
- 12 - Jr Apprentice Nursing student
- 15 - Sr Apprentice Nurse (LPN - 2 year degree)
- 18 - Jr Journeyman Nurse (RN - 4 year degree)
- 21 - Sr Journeyman Doctor (Resident)
- 30+ - Master Doctor (Specialist)
After an apprentice achieves Journeyman rank, he chooses a specialty & begins to direct most of his studies as a journeyman towards that calling. Those who don't choose a specialty go on to become general healers who are assigned to more remote holds.
Specialties include:
- nursing
- diagnostics
- pediatrics
- geriatrics
- midwifery
- urology
- herbalology
- dentistry
- surgery
- mindhealing
- massage therapy
- respiratory ailments.
Every Weyr will have at least one urologist and one surgeon.
Healing on Pern is not extremely advanced. Surgery is rare, due to the Pernese aversion to it. Cesarean sections and repair surgery for 'Fall injuries and the like are the only surgeries commonly accepted due to the risk of infection and shock. Birth defects are virtually unknown, as the Pernese do not have the technology to sustain those born with them. Healers treat their patients in preventative manners for most common illnesses, prescribing tonics and teas that stave off illness.
Suicide holds no stigma on Pern, as a person's death is considered a private matter. Euthanasia is practiced when the healer, his patient, and his Master agree that the illness is terminal and cannot be healed. A dragonrider who loses his dragon tends to end his own life, and none see this as wrong.
