Vaccine testimonial from a colleague

“I got vaccinated because I believe in the science. I believe in the professionalism of the men and women of healthcare who are tirelessly battling this virus. I believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel if we all do our part and get the vaccine,” said Kenneth Salembier, respiratory therapist at Beaumont, Farmington Hills.

Mental Health Awareness webinars

During May, join the Beaumont, Dearborn Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, in partnership with Bwell, the Center for Mindfulness and Ulliance, for a series of webinars intended to educate on the emotions and values that contribute to our mental health and how we can take action to enhance well-being.

Weekly topics include: Emotional Well-being, Good Mood Food and Mindfulness. These sessions are accessible to all employees via live webinar from 11:30 a.m. to noon on Mondays, beginning May 10. For those who cannot attend live, recordings will be available on the Bwell webpage and Employee Well-being Toolkit. For details, view the flyer. You can also email Bwell to obtain a calendar invitation.

Beaker enhancement effective May 3 

An enhancement to Beaker will be added on Monday, May 3, to assist those who reprint laboratory labels. With this enhancement, team members will be able to separate laboratory-use only labels from the list of labels available to departments. Please review the education document while connected to the Beaumont network for full details. For questions, please contact the Service Desk at 888-481-2448. 

Safe Delivery: Surrendering a baby at a hospital

If you take nothing from this article but one thing, let this be it: Take the baby.

In Michigan, the Safe Delivery of Newborns law allows a parent or parents to safely and legally surrender their newborn, no more than three days old. A newborn may be given to a uniformed employee who is inside and on duty at any hospital, fire department or police department. The newborn will be placed for adoption. 

The idea behind the law is to prevent birthparents from leaving babies in public areas where they could get injured or suffer from neglect.

“When birthparents surrender a child, it’s for the safety of the baby,” explained Anne Stewart, chief nursing officer, Beaumont, Royal Oak. “Any employee at our acute care campuses could be in a situation where a birth parent surrenders their baby to them, and we all need to know what to do so everyone is safe.”

The first thing all employees need to know is accepting the baby is your first priority. “Mom should feel safe walking up to anyone in uniform at the hospital and hand their baby to them,” said Anne.

The birthparent is under no obligation to do anything else. You should attempt to collect information about the baby’s health so we can provide them the best care. We should also attempt to give them a pamphlet about their rights, but they don’t have to provide information or take the pamphlet. 

By not knowing what to do, we risk the birthparent leaving with the baby, which could be unsafe. “We need to ‘Just take the baby’ and we’ll sort it all out after,” said Anne. “We protect the birthparents’ rights and we protect their baby. We’ll keep that baby safe.”

It’s important to remember to stay calm and non-judgmental. Think of the surrendering parent and how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking, but most of all, think of the safety of the child.

Look for a module in your Annual Education requirements that gives more detail on what to do if you are ever in this situation. You can also review Beaumont’s Safe Delivery of a Newborn policy.