MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK STATE NURSES ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCE APRIL 2ND STRIKE DATE AT MOUNT SINAI, MONTEFIORE AND NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL SYSTEMS
For Immediate Release: March 19, 2019
Contact: Carl Ginsburg |carl.ginsburg@nysna.org | 917-405-1060
MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK STATE NURSES ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCE APRIL 2ND STRIKE DATE AT MOUNT SINAI, MONTEFIORE AND NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL SYSTEMS
Official ‘10-day’ Notice of Intent to Strike Delivered Today
Hospitals Refuse to Hire Enough Bedside Caregivers Forcing Nurses to Care for up to 19 Patients at Once
Enough is Enough: Safe Staffing Is Essential Because It Really Does Save Lives
New York, NY – Members of the New York State Nurses Association announced an April 2nd strike date at Mount Sinai, Montefiore and New York Presbyterian hospitals systems. An official ‘10-Day’ notice of intent to strike was delivered today.
The strike notice affects more than ten thousand nurses at the three hospitals systems where there are currently contract talks underway.
Right now, because hospitals refuse to hire enough bedside caregivers, nurses are forced to care for up to 19 patients at once. When that happens, our patients suffer.
We are patient advocates. We are raising a red flag. We are saying enough is enough.
In March, over 97% of nurses across the three hospital systems voted to authorize a strike because it has become a matter of life and death for our patients. We do NOT want to strike, but we are determined to make changes that will guarantee safe staffing to properly take care of our patients.
Nurses refused to be silenced on safe staffing despite the hospital systems' attempts to stop us from expressing our views and their failure to provide us basic staffing information.
Last month, reports were released documenting approximately 3,800 “Protests of Assignment” signed by over 20,000 nurses in 2018 alone from the three hospital systems. The reports detailed conditions inside the facilities and showed there aren’t enough nurses to give patients the care they need and deserve. Additional news reports clearly highlighted disturbing conditions, including patients left on stretchers in hallways for days at a time with no privacy because of a lack of staff and space.
Below are just a few of the thousands of stories from the reports:
“Already short staffed and admissions keep coming (ER quickly filling up) with no imminent increase in staffing. Patients arriving every 5-10 minutes.” [Mt. Sinai, p36]
“Unsafe staffing in both nurseries. No NAs in both nurseries and acuity is high. Same situation on both 5th floor and 6th floor [NY-Presbyterian, p28]
“Not enough RNs to admit and discharge patients…RNs not able to check on patients every 1-2 hours [Mt. Sinai / St. Luke’s, p21]
“50 patients in a waiting room with a wait time of 6 hours and 24 minutes…RNs covering 19+ patients resulting in no time to medicate or document in accord with policies” [Montefiore, p23]
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) represents more than 42,000 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.
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