NY Nurse May 2016

Safe staffing momentum growing!

Nearly 30 NYSNA members who live and/or work in Rockland County were on hand April 26 and again on May 3 to champion a safe staffing resolution through the Rockland County Legislature. Retired NYSNA member from Nyack Hospital and current Rockland County Legislator Aney Paul, RN, introduced the resolution to the County’s Multi-Service Committee, which gave a unanimous endorsement following passionate testimony by Carol Massaro, RN and Nyack NYSNA Executive Committee member.

NYSNA members and President Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, RN, took part in the May 14 Break Free action, which brought together 1,500 people from 100 organizations in Albany’s Lincoln Park to call for an end to the “bomb trains” used to transport gas and oil and that seriously endanger community health and safety.

On May 10, NYSNA nurses joined our Campaign for Patient Safety allies from the Public Employees Federation, the Communication Workers of America, the New York State Union of Teachers, and the New York StateWide Senior Action Council to lobby for the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act in Albany.

Nearly 2,000 nurses and healthcare activists held an energetic rally and lobbied elected leaders to demand that the legislature bring the safe staffing bill to a “Floor Vote Now!”

On May 5 in New York City, NYSNA nurses joined more than 2,000 strikers from CWA and IBEW and their supporters for a massive march and rally.

Jalisa Saud, RN at Coney Island Hospital, addressed the crowd on behalf of NYSNA nurses.

“I am here on behalf of the 39,000 nurses of NYSNA to tell you that the nurses are with you,” said Ms. Saud. “Take it from a nurse: Verizon’s greed makes us sick.”

On April 21, NYSNA nurses at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown held an informational picket to shine the spotlight on staffing concerns at their hospital.

For the past year, NYSNA nurses have been at the bargaining table negotiating a new contract, but management has been unwilling to address short staffing issues that put patient care at risk.

In late April, Mayor de Blasio released a comprehensive report titled “One New York: Health Care for Our Neighborhoods.” In it, the City commits $2 billion to transition New York City’s Health + Hospitals public healthcare system to one that is centered on community healthcare.

Political and community leaders joined NYSNA nurses and 1199SEIU caregivers for a march and rally on May 11 to raise awareness about short staffing and patient care concerns at Vassar Brothers Medical Center (VBMC) in Poughkeepsie.

VBMC has expanded services and seen significant growth in patient volume in recent years, but the hospital has not increased staffing levels. Nurses and caregivers are being forced to take on more patients at once increasing concerns about patient safety and high staff turnover.

NYSNA RNs spearheaded a statewide day of action for safe staffing in honor of National Nurses Day on May 6. Elected leaders and patient advocates joined nurses at rallies and press conferences throughout the state calling on the New York State legislature to pass the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act.

From east to west, north to south, in Buffalo, Long Island, Schenectady, Westchester, the Bronx, and Brooklyn, the message was the same: safe staffing saves lives!

NYSNA nurses stand with the nearly 40,000 women and men on strike since April 13 to save middle class jobs. The strikers are employees of Verizon and members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. At the time of publication, the strike had passed its 30-day mark. On May 1, Verizon executives took the unconscionable move of cutting off healthcare benefits for the striking workers and their children.

Harriet Tubman, an African American woman, nurse, former slave, and famed conductor of the underground railroad will replace Andrew Jackson, a slaveholder, on the front of the 20-dollar bill.

Harriet Tubman is most known for her heroic acts to free slaves. She herself was born into slavery and escaped to the north. She then returned to free those she had been forced to leave behind, dedicating her life to ending the inhumane bondage of human beings owned as property in the south.

As I write this column, our priority bill, the “Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act” (S.782/A.8580-A) – the bill that will set a maximum number of patients a nurse can care for at any one time – is being hotly debated and seriously scrutinized by key legislators. Why is that?

This year, our comprehensive campaign for passage has intensified: