Pat Kane, RN, CNOR(e) NYSNA Executive Director

Since NYSNA members transformed our union in 2012 to be a fighting, member-led union of frontline nurses and healthcare professionals, we have been doing the work to make that goal a reality. We have developed trainings and structures to inform, empower, and prepare members to lead our union. We have built our nurse power from the ground up, and we have used it to take on — and win — major battles for safe staffing and respect.

The fights for our profession, our patients and our communities are all interconnected. Members sometimes ask me why NYSNA nurses are involved in racial justice, climate justice or gender justice, for example. They wonder what these issues have to do with nursing. I tell them that these fights are inseparable from our fights for healthcare justice.

New York has an affordability crisis. From housing and healthcare to education, most New Yorkers are finding it increasingly difficult to stay above water. 

National trends like skyrocketing inflation make even buying the essentials like groceries more unaffordable. In New York, we feel the impacts of the affordability crisis especially hard because our state ranks highest in the nation when it comes to income inequality.¹ New York also has the largest wealth inequality and the largest racial wealth gap in the nation.²

As we look ahead in 2024 to the biggest challenges that face our profession, we expect that safe staffing will continue to be at the top of the list. While nurses work overtime on solutions to the nurse staffing crisis, federal, state and local governments continue to entertain the hospital industry’s preferred short-term “solutions” and calls for “flexibility” that don’t solve the nurse staffing crisis. 

Imagine: You are being admitted to the hospital for the first time. The nurse who is asking you questions, assessing your condition and prioritizing your care is just a video image and a voice on a screen.

I dropped in on several Nurses Week celebrations again this year and felt very fortunate and inspired to celebrate in person. I found myself reflecting on where we are after three years of the COVID-19 pandemic and how, despite the ongoing challenges, we have a lot to celebrate.

New York City is facing the worst understaffing crisis we have ever seen in its public hospitals and Mayoral agencies, with nurses leaving for the private sector where they get higher pay and better working conditions. This must be addressed with a fair contract for the 9,000 NYSNA nurses who work for NYC H+H (our nation’s largest municipal health care delivery system of public hospitals, community-based health centers, long-term care and rehabilitation facilities, correctional health services), and for our Mayoral agencies.

Approximately 17,000 NYSNA members at twelve hospitals in New York City had contracts expiring on Dec. 31, 2022. Of that number, 15,000 nurses sent 10-day strike notices, with Montifiore and Mount Sinai going on strike before ultimately reaching an agreement with historic gains. There was a lot of dialogue over the past few weeks, and I want to ensure that we are all clear about what is happening and why.

The United States is known for many things, including exorbitant healthcare costs. Healthcare costs have always been high, but things appear to be getting worse. While persons who are unemployed and persons with limited financial means struggle disproportionately due to the high cost of care, people from many different backgrounds are navigating how to access and afford quality care.

This year, we’ve witnessed persistent understaffing, burnout of healthcare professionals and widespread societal issues. From gun violence to restrictions on reproductive rights to efforts to limit the effectiveness of the Environmental Protection Agency in fighting climate change, there isn’t a shortage of issues competing for our time and attention. While the challenges before us are great, our hope in this moment is each other. We can accomplish more together than any of us could if we are alone.

I do not need to tell you that the past few weeks have been horrific. Many of us have been completely shattered following the tragedy in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas. I realize that the tragedies of the past few weeks compound the personal struggles some may be enduring.

Of all institutions, unions know the power of sticking together. When many people push for the same goal, their combined effort can make herculean tasks manageable. Having been on the front lines providing care in the direst of circumstances, healthcare professionals are clear that we rise or fall together. It was that spirit which brought New York's healthcare unions together to form the Joint Union Staffing Implementation Committee, comprised of members of DC37, 1199SEIU, Communications Workers of America, the New York State Public Employees Federation and the NYSNA.

I recently testified during a virtual hearing regarding the FY23 Executive Budget. The Governor’s current budget invests significantly in expanding healthcare coverage and capacity, among other things. Since the budget impacts us all, it is important to know where we are and what we are asking of this administration. While I will cover as much as possible in this column, you can see a full list of NYSNA priorities here: bit.ly/budget-priorities.

It is not an overstatement to say that the past couple of years has been filled with trauma upon trauma. We have lost loved ones and friends. We have worked in less-than-ideal circumstances. We have experienced gaslighting by employers. We have held the sorrow of colleagues as well as patients, their families and communities. And yet we are still here.

The start of a new year brings anticipation. There is anticipation of what one hopes to accomplish personally and professionally. There is also trepidation about uncertainty for what the coming year may bring. While there is a lot we do not know, there are key things we are certain will greet us in 2022. As we round out 2021 and prepare to enter a new year, NYSNA is mindful that our work fighting for healthcare workers and patients is entering a new frontier. Below are four key things we are preparing for in the coming year.

On December 6, 2021, NYSNA will host our first ever statewide bargaining conference. It is an opportunity to unite workers across regions and systems and prepare for upcoming contract negotiations. The conference will feature educational courses, regional and systemwide breakouts, strategy sessions and more. Because many employers are statewide or rapidly expanding across NY, we want to ensure that em-ployees who are separated by buildings but employed by the same system can work collaboratively to develop strategies to improve patient care.

I know this communication reaches you at a precarious time. Nationally, there are rising concerns about the delta variant and fear that the return to normalcy we anticipated this summer is a long way off. Across the country, there’s anxiety over the safety of children and young adults returning to school. Locally, there’s intense focus on the impact of the vaccine mandate on nurses, patients, and health care systems already stressed with short staffing.

On August 18, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) issued a mandate requiring all healthcare workers in the state, including staff at hospitals, nursing homes, and other related facilities, to be vaccinated by Monday, September 27. We know that mandates create an incredible amount of stress and we do not take lightly the anxiety this is causing. For these reasons, we immediately sent Requests to Bargain to all local bargaining units to ensure that we protect all union members.

At the start of the pandemic, nurses were hailed as heroes, especially by their employers. But the applause was all rhetoric with little in the way of tangible action to demonstrate the value of nurses and healthcare professionals. Nurses and healthcare workers need more than empty words.

Our members helped save the lives of tens of thousands of New Yorkers infected with the COVID-19 virus. You entered your hospitals knowing that by that very act you risked exposure to the deadly virus.

The “Parade of Heroes” in New York City on July 7 was an opportunity for healthcare workers to feel a connection with the people that matter most — your patients. Some nurses felt that participating in the Parade of Heroes was an opportunity to show that they survived this horrifying year of pandemic. That can be an important part of beginning to heal.

On June 18, in a victory for all nurses and healthcare workers in New York, groundbreaking staffing legislation for hospitals and nursing homes became law.

The legislation, a pair of landmark laws—the Hospital Clinical Staffing Committees and Disclosure Act (A108B/S1168A) and the Standard Minimum Nursing Home Staffing Levels Act (A7119/S6346) — is a result of your steadfast advocacy for over a decade which continued, unwavering, as you faced unprecedented crisis conditions, putting yourself at risk on the frontlines while safeguarding the lives of others.

This month the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) turns 50. It was created on April 28, 1971, but the battle against COVID-19 has made this anything but an occasion to celebrate. More than 3,600 healthcare workers are dead in the US, the majority under 60, disproportionately people of color. Roughly one in three were nurses.

During this month, we look back at a year of grave consequences. It is the one year anniversary of COVID-19 here in New York City, the epicenter of the epicenter, a designation as somber as any could be.

Our experience was not unique. Hospitals across the state endured similar fates: very sick patients and overwhelmed nurses, doctors and other caregivers.

Letitia James is no stranger to battle. We’ve seen her in action for years, fighting the odds in her enduring quest for equity and justice.

On January 28, with the release of her report, Nursing Home Response to COVID-19 Pandemic, James took on a behemoth, the New York nursing home industry, on behalf of residents and their families and the staff in those facilities.

The AG’s Report sent shockwaves through the industry and the halls of power in Albany. No one was immune — from the owners and executives, to the governor and the Department of Health.

We are living through unprecedented times, a moment unlike any other most of us have experienced in our lifetimes. Events in our hospitals, our communities and our nation are unfolding fast: an insurrection in our nation’s capital, unemployment the likes of which this country has not seen since the Depression, and a worldwide pandemic that is surging again through the neighborhoods of New York. Taken together, they place before us a set of profound challenges.

Across the US, union members are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic with the courage and work ethic that made America the most productive country in the world. Without adequate equipment or appropriate government and corporate direction, organized labor has gone to work with grit and determination in the face of a deadly pandemic—no matter the risk.

As nurses, we put the health and well-being of our patients first every time we’re at the bedside. Despite the enormous challenges, we saved the lives of over 73,000 New Yorkers during the COVID-19 surge this spring.

On March 23, as the coronavirus crisis was gaining momentum in New York, the state ordered hospitals to increase their capacity by at least fifty percent. Wealthy private hospitals started emptying out psychiatric units under the auspices of this effort. For these hospitals, it was a golden opportunity to enhance their bottom line. There would be no regulatory hurdles under the governor’s executive orders.

As I write this column, this nation is confronting a racial crisis of historic proportions. We have all seen the footage — more than eight horrifying minutes of it: a white police officer’s knee on the neck of a dying African American man. There is no question in any of our minds that Police Officer Chauvin killed George Floyd in a brutal, inhuman act. Add to that, the recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and others — all heart-breaking and terrifying reminders of the pervasive racial injustice with which we live.

This year we commemorate National Nurses Week from May 6-12 in a solemn spirit. We remember friends and colleagues who have died on the front lines of the enduring battle against Covid-19. We honor the courage and commitment of our nurses who report to work daily at great risk to their health.

There is good cause to celebrate our work. Here in New York, 58,950 patients, hospitalized with the COVID-19 infection, recovered.

Our fight for adequate PPE — and for all that's needed to protect ourselves and our patients — resonates in New York and around the country.

As of this writing, we are grieving the loss of two fellow NYSNA nurses and one former NYSNA member, who died prematurely from COVID-19 — Freda Ocran, Theresa Lococo and Kious Kelly.

As front line nurses, and as New Yorkers committed to healthcare as a human right, we are inextricably connected to the Medicaid program. More than a quarter of New York State’s population — 26% — is covered by Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Plus.*

Sandy made landfall just two days after the end of our NYSNA convention last year. Our new board was seated on Friday and on Monday we faced a challenge unprecedented in our union’s history.

Hundreds of nurses, including me and many of my colleagues at Staten Island University Hospital, were mandated to stay at our facilities. Some of us for days. We didn’t know what we’d be going home to. Some of us went home to find our houses destroyed or unlivable. Worse, some lost neighbors and loved ones.