NY’s Largest Nurses Union Ventures to Albany to Push for Support on Vital Healthcare Issues Affecting NY Patients

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 12, 2015

Healthcare Advocates Ask for Lawmaker Support on Safe Staffing Ratios

(ALBANY, NY) – Registered nurses (RNs), caregivers and nursing students from Buffalo to Brooklyn rallied at the State Capitol today to lobby legislators to support the growing healthcare needs of patients in New York, including addressing the current staffing crisis facing hospitals.

STATEMENT FROM ANNE BOVE, RN

“Good morning. “My name is Anne Bové. I am a registered nurse at Bellevue Hospital Center, a member of the board of the New York State Nurses Association, and president of the HHC-Mayorals Executive Committee, a committee made up of representatives of the 8,000 RNs who work in the public system in New York City.

“Thank you for this opportunity to appear today.

“On behalf of my fellow 8,000 nurses in the public system, and thousands more elsewhere in the ranks of NYSNA, we are here advocating for safe staffing legislation, knowing that these new regulations will save lives and that the research is on our side.

“Clinical and academic studies have consistently shown that safe staffing improves patient outcomes and even saves money.

“In study after study, unsafe staffing levels lead to worse health outcomes, including shock, cardiac arrest, and hospital-acquired pneumonia.

“We know that a safe and reliable healthcare system of the future cannot be created unless we empower our frontline providers of care, and give them what they need to get the job done. We need hospital management to take safe staffing seriously.

“Putting lives at risk by forcing nurses to take care of additional patients to increase the bottom line is not appropriate.

“Our patients deserve a nurse at their bedside to care to their healthcare needs, and right now… there just aren’t enough nurses to provide the care that they so desperately need.

“New York state needs a safe staffing law that will ensure that all hospitals – from Buffalo to Brooklyn – have safe nurse-to-patient ratios that not only will protect us, but will protect our patients.

“Standards of care are needed, and that’s why I support the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act. It is common sense legislation that will save lives and allow New Yorkers to hold hospitals accountable for the care they provide.”

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The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) represents more than 37,000 members in New York State. We are New York’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses. For more information, please visit our website at www.nysna.org.