At the hospital I work at you have to write to and receive permission from
the DON before undertaking employment outside the hospital!! Good grief,
are we two and need permission to go outside and play? The notion that our
lives outside of the hospital need to be sanctioned by a DON is appalling!
Needless to say I have never written to the DON but many off the staff
do........
Melissa
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrea Quanchi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "ozmidwifery" <ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au>; "Maternity Coalition"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 6:33 AM
Subject: [ozmidwifery] midwives supporting homebirth being attacked
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
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