Thousands picket in NYC
After months of negotiations, thousands of NYC’s registered nurses from 14 citywide hospitals took their fight for patient care and safe staffing levels to the community on Thursday with a day-long citywide informational picket. Thousands of nurses gathered in front of area hospitals holding signs and handing out literature to underscore the staffing crisis in their units. They called upon the community to contact hospital CEOs and demand that safe staffing be a priority at their facilities.
“We’re uniting for our patients and we're asking management to prioritize safe RN and caregiver staffing levels that have proven to save lives. There are times when we’re caring for 9 or 10 patients — even more — and, it’s not possible to give each patient the attention that they need,” said Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, a registered nurse at Montefiore Medical Center and President of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). “We went into this profession to be patient advocates. That’s what this info picket is all about.”