NY Nurse: August 2021

NYSNA members came together with COVID-19 survivors and family members to honor those who lost their lives to and those who continue to struggle. The first Covid March to Remember took place on Saturday, Aug. 7, and was organized by COVID Survivors for Change, a nonpartisan nationwide community of people who have been directly impacted by COVID-19.

Local organizer Pastor Brenda Mitchell kicked off the program for the day by saying, “Don’t forget those on the frontlines who gave everything they had so that we could be here today.”

During the first months of the pandemic, the whole world watched a video of people lined up outside Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. Against that backdrop, Elmhurst Hospital midwives have cared for women of all ages. The hospital serves a very large immigrant community, with patients from more than 20 countries receiving care at the facility. The midwives have cared for COVID-19-positive mothers and babies during the pandemic, delivering more than 400 babies, and they continue to do so.

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.

The Hospital Clinical Staffing Committees and Disclosure Act — the landmark staffing law establishing clinical staffing committees in all hospitals in New York state — is an enormous step forward toward implementing safe staffing standards in all facilities across the state. The law is fundamentally about equality, and it is incumbent upon us to gather supporting evidence to ensure the clinical staffing standards achieved under the new law allow us to deliver the highest-quality patient care to every New Yorker.