Shadman Habibi walked into a meeting with the obstetrics and gynecology department at the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center expecting a long-awaited meeting on ways to improve the midwifery program’s performance. Habibi, the head nurse midwife at the department, said it was the first in-person meeting the department had called in a year.
Instead, leadership told her that UCLA Health ended the midwifery program. Each member of Habibi’s team was called into the department director’s office one at a time and handed a letter of termination.
“It was a week of total sadness,” Habibi said. “You know, just shock.”
Nurse midwives are now recovering from a crisis of confidence after UCLA Health fired and subsequently reinstated them.
UCLA Santa Monica Obstetrics and Gynecology fired all of its nurse midwives Feb. 12 without giving them prior warning. The two part-time nurse midwives on the staff were fired immediately, while the remaining five full-time midwives were told they had until April 30.
A week later, UCLA Health sent the nurse midwives an apologetic email reversing the decision and reinstating all midwives.
“We sincerely apologize for the concern and confusion that this has caused patients, families and employees,” said UCLA Health spokesperson Enrique Rivero said in an emailed statement. “There will be no interruption in the valuable services provided by our dedicated team of highly skilled midwives.”
Rivero said in the email to The Bruin that UCLA Health executive leadership was not aware of the decision to terminate the midwifery program. Rivero added that executive leadership immediately reversed the terminations after it learned of the decision.
Rivero’s statement does not give a reason for the initial termination and UCLA Health did not respond to questions about why the nurse midwives were fired and reinstated...
Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2021/03/07/firing-reinstatement-of-ucla-nurse-midwives-causes-distress-and-disillusionment
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