Vivian Obijekwu has been a registered nurse since October 2016 and has worked at The Johns Hopkins Hospital her entire career. As a bedside RN, Vivian has dedicated her life to helping others, and her competence, dedication and professionalism were well recognized at Johns Hopkins.

All this changed after Vivian led a delegation of African American nurses to meet with management to promote safer patient care and fairness and equality in their unit. Since then, management treated her with escalating hostility. This pattern culminated in her termination earlier this month, just a few weeks after she requested leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to care for her baby due in early May.

With this action, Johns Hopkins is leaving Vivian and her unborn child with no insurance or income.

This is egregious and unconscionable, and just the latest example of Hopkins’ extensive culture of fear that silences front-line caregivers. Vivian is one of many nurses of color who have been disciplined or terminated by Johns Hopkins in the past few months. Like Vivian, these nurses have been punished for organizing their fellow nurses to address short staffing and supply shortages and trying to make Johns Hopkins a safer place for all patients and employees.

Says Vivian, “I’m disappointed that rather than supporting nurses who are trying to make Hopkins a safer place for all patients and fair for all employees, Hopkins terminated me in an attempt to silence me and to provoke fear among fellow nurses who are also trying to create change.”