The last two days I have been trying to support one of our colleagues
who is under attack.
Anne Smith, whom many of you will know, had moved from Mildura where
she had worked for many years at the hospital and attending home
births, to Wangaratta to work in their community midwifery program
which offers continuity of care to women so long as the give birth at
the hospital. She has continued to attend home births since she moved.
Last week one of the women who was attending the program decided she
wanted to birth at home and so Anne documented this in her notes and
informed the woman that she would no longer be eligible to attend the
program for ante natal care as this is the accepted practice there.
Subsequently Anne has been called to task by management because they
felt that as she had agreed to attend the home birth for a woman who
she had previously seen in the community midwife program there was a
conflict of interest/.
Yesterday she was presented with an ultimatum
1. resign, 2. be dismissed immediately or 3. promise not attend the
home birth
Anne felt she had no option but to resign and honour her commitment
to the woman to be with her where she chooses to birth. Anne has now
sacrificed he major source of income and the women of wangaratta
wanting to attend the community midwife program a very experienced
and passionate midwife.
I know this email will be read by people who already get it so its a
little like preaching to the converted but this will have an imapct,
Most midwives in private practice dont have enough clients to do this
as their sole source of income. Most country towns only have one
hospital and if I could not supplement my income by working at the
local hospital then I would probably have to move and this would deny
homebirth with a midwife to women in the large geographical area that
I cover. Wangaratta si no different and if midwives cant who offer
home birthing as an option to women cant work at the hospital it is
unlikely they will remain there fro long. The other thing they were
suggesting is that once a woman attends the community midwifery
program and meets the midwives she is bo longer able to choose to
birth at home.
When asked to sign a code of conduct at the hospital where you work
make sure you read it. I did and refused to sign mine until they
changed it as it said I had to ask permission from the DON before
undertaking other employment. They tried to tell me that this didnt
mean that I was reading too much into it and making a fuss over
nothing but they eventually removed the clause from my document
before I signed it but I know many of my colleagues weren't even
aware that that clause was in there when they signed it. This was
one thing that was put to Anne that the document she signed said she
had to notify(might not be the right word) the hospital board were
she undertaking other employment so read your appropriate document
carefully as they are all derivatives of the same thing. IWe all
think we are allowed to work where we want but it seems hospitals
dont have the same opinion on this that we do. Of course it you want
to work at another hosital that seems to be OK its only if you are
doing something they dont want you to do that they will bring this up
against you.
Is this what the next round is about? Will other hospitals that
employ midwives who also work outside the hospital try this one
next. I suspect so. Be prepared.
Andrea Quanchi
--
This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics.
Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe.