The Staffing Crisis From the Frontlines
Last month, NYSNA released our major report on safe staffing. It was the first comprehensive look at nurse staffing in the state since the COVID-19 pandemic and since the New York state staffing laws, which we advocated for, passed in 2021.
The report comes as the New York State Department of Health (DOH) has still not published actual staffing levels or staffing enforcement actions and as the independent advisory commission — tasked with releasing a report to assess the law’s effectiveness and make recommendations to the New York Legislature in the 2025 session — missed a key deadline. To fill the gap in evaluating the safe staffing law, we looked at data we gathered through surveys and collected from members as well as from case studies from frontline registered nurses’ experience.
More Evidence for Advocacy
The data that our frontline members collected showed that understaffing in New York’s hospitals is still widespread and negatively impacts patient care. We analyzed how the law is working — and not working — to hold hospitals accountable and improve staffing levels.
NYSNA’s report found that on more than 50% of reported shifts, hospitals failed to staff intensive care units and critical care patients at the 1:2 nurse-to-patient ratio that the staffing law mandates.
Only 55% of the hospitals we surveyed are publicly posting actual staffing levels on all units, and only 50% have implemented the solutions that staffing committees have generated to address complaints.
NYSNA members, our allies on the multiunion steering committee and state legislators now have a new tool to advocate for improved enforcement of New York’s staffing laws. The report received widespread press coverage, starting with a feature in Politico.1 The media coverage put the DOH on the spot and forced it to answer specifics about how it was failing to enforce the law.
Recommendations to Fix the Staffing Crisis
NYSNA’s report arms us with recommendations for legislators to fix the staffing crisis. NYSNA recommends:
• The DOH must increase transparency so that the public can see actual staffing levels in New York’s hospitals.
• The DOH must enforce safe staffing standards as the law requires.
• New York State must expand nurse recruitment and retention.
• Hospitals and educational institutions must restore quality training and orientation programs.
• Employers must respect nurses by improving staffing and working conditions, including health and safety protections, pay and benefits.
The Fight Ahead
When we head to Albany for Lobby Day in March, we plan to use this new report and actual data that our members have collected to escalate our call for the DOH to do its job. Even though the facts are on our side, we anticipate another safe staffing fight this year.
We will also renew our calls for fair hospital funding and nurse recruitment and training in the budget. Unfortunately, we can also expect another budget fight this year against recurring bad ideas like the Nurse Licensure Compact and other threats to the nurse scope of practice.
The hospital industry has some of our elected officials convinced that there is a nursing shortage in New York — not an industry-created staffing crisis. The new report will help set the record straight and make sure policymakers understand the solutions that frontline nurses and healthcare professionals prioritize. While it’s up to the DOH to enforce this law, the problem of unsafe staffing begins with the hospital industry continually putting profits before patient care.
NYSNA members are living the staffing crisis every day. We are the ones with the expertise to know what our patients need and what will improve quality care in every part of the state. And we will continue to fight for safe staffing every way we can.
Sources
1. Kaufman, Maya. “Lackluster enforcement hobbles hospital staffing law, nurses’ union says,” Politico, Dec. 16, 2024. Accessed https://bit.ly/404Atep
Read the Report: The report is available online at www.nysna.org/resources/2024-nysna-staffing-report