For Immediate Release: Jan. 10, 2023
Contact: Kristi Barnes | press@nysna.org | 646-853-4489
Anna Sterling | anna.sterling@nysna.org | 646-673-0419
NYSNA Nurses Respond to Gov. Hochul’s State of State Address
Nurses Applaud Focus on Maternal and Mental Health Amidst Ongoing Crises and Closures of Services
NYSNA Urges More Attention to Hospital Staffing Crisis
Moratorium on Closures, Safe Staffing Enforcement, Robust Nurse Recruitment and Retention Program Top List of Nurses’ Demands in 2024
Albany, N.Y.—The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) responded to the governor’s annual State of the State address with its own healthcare priorities informed by frontline nurses from across the state.
The union applauded the governor’s priorities of maternal and mental health amidst ongoing crises. In the last decade and especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, New York’s hospitals have reduced these inpatient services, likely contributing to high rates of maternal and child mortality and morbidity, particularly for Black women, and soaring unmet mental health needs.
Nurses are currently combatting the proposed closure of maternal child health services at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital on Long Island and the closure of midwifery services at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital.
Since Gov. Hochul announced financial penalties for hospitals that fail to reopen inpatient mental health units that were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, many have reopened, proving that a tough approach to hospital accountability works. There must be a moratorium on further closures of mental health and maternal child health units.
Although hospital admissions are soaring this winter due to COVID-19, flu, and RSV, and nurse staffing levels remain inadequate at many facilities, there was little focus in the State of the State address on addressing New York’s broader healthcare and safe staffing crisis.
One year after the historic NYC nurses’ strike and enforcement of New York’s clinical hospital staffing committee law began, understaffing persists. Nurses around the state have filed complaints with the New York State Department of Health (DOH), charged with enforcing the staffing law. Although understaffing that puts patient care at risk persists in hospital units throughout the state, the DOH has issued very few violations, and no financial penalties to date.
New York State can and must help with long-term solutions to the nurse staffing crisis to ensure safe, quality care for all New Yorkers. The state can support these efforts by fully enforcing the transparency and accountability requirements for hospitals in the staffing law. Creating safe working conditions and patient care conditions is essential for strong nurse retention.
Nurses are also asking for a robust plan for nurse education and recruitment in the state budget, including loan forgiveness, funding CUNY and SUNY nursing programs, hiring more instructors, and encouraging more clinical training and mentorship programs in hospitals. They should also reject proposals like the Nurse Licensure Compact, which have not been proven to increase the supply of nurses but could lower patient care standards.
