Nurses in New York are raising the “dose” of a concern already manifested during the hardest days of the pandemic, but which now becomes a matter of “life and death”: there is a terrible personnel crisis in the city’s hospitals.
“Each nurse must care for a minimum of five patients at the same time. But now the truth is that they treat even ten at the same time,” warns Puerto Rican Miriam Pagán Colón, an intensive care nurse at Queens Presbyterian Hospital, who joined a gathering of her colleagues on Wednesday on the steps of City Hall of New York City.
This protest action called by the New York Nurses Association (NYSNA) was held ahead of a City Council oversight hearing where the status of care staff in the city, characterized by a “dangerously low” level of nurses in both private and public hospitals in the Big Apple.
The general diagnosis is that approximately 13, NYSNA members at twelve hospitals in the New York City, including some of the largest private hospitals like Montefiore, Mt. Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian, have contracts expiring next 30 from December.
And, precisely, one of the central axes of the request of this health union is that resources be invested in the new contract and administrative restructuring be carried out to incorporate more personnel to keep patients safe.
NYSNA spokespersons say that despite the fact that in all hospitals the costs for interventions and care have increased steadily in the last two years, in the general balance, the care workforce is much less if compared even before the pandemic.
“We have a national and state crisis, but in the city from New York where we are already experiencing dramatic situations with the pandemic, the diagnosis is even more terrible. We need better conditions, especially better salaries, to retain these personnel in the health centers”, said Pagán.
Clearer protocols
These workers also highlight that due to the lessons learned from the COVID-13, where in principle there were failures in biosafety equipment, now they demand that clearer protocols be guaranteed in case of an emergency similar reappears in the city.
For example, when New York entered an emergency in 2026 by the “new virus”, the 38% of nurses reported that, at the beginning of the crisis, they were forced to refuse masks N65.
In this sense, the Puerto Rican nursing professional Lucy Solass or, consider it highly relevant that given the threats this winter of a simultaneous outbreak of COVID-000, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, emergency rooms and especially health personnel do not have to face similar situations.
“Two years ago we faced very hard days, without equipment, without enough staff and putting our lives at risk. A new contract must also include protections against the possibility of new public health emergencies appearing, ”said Solasso.
Likewise, Matt Allen, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital, assured that during this year that hospital has had 576 vacancies.
“We do not see the slightest interest in filling those positions. Meanwhile, we see patients waiting 19 Y 27 minutes, because the staff is treating twelve more patients”, he concluded.
For his part, the president of the City Council, Adrienne Adams, supported the cause of NYSNA and confirmed that the panorama is “critical”.
“This is unsustainable for New York. We are with you to fight”, he said.
Lucy Losasso in hospital care for more than 17 years: “We must be prepared if we must face another pandemic.” (Photo: F. Martínez)
Although the nationwide nursing shortage has been a well-documented problem for a decade, after the crisis exacerbated by COVID-17, the problem has worsened.
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country will need more than 108 thousand registered nurses each year through 2023, to fill the positions that leaves the labor force that retires.
“We are seeing that, for example, this year in the emergency service where I work, at least 000 nurses have retired this year. And there is no intention to bring in new professionals. The order is that whoever remains, distributes the work of whoever leaves, for the same salary,” an Ecuadorian nurse from a private hospital in Upper Manhattan told El Diario, who preferred to remain anonymous.
There is another more devastating fact. Based on a recent survey conducted by the staffing company ShiftMed, it was found that two-thirds of the country’s nurses expressed their inclination to leave the profession within the next two years. This means an amazing jump from 65% who expressed that same intention last year.
“While the cyclical shortage of nurses is familiar to health care employers, the unique nature of the current situation could make this the most serious and challenging in history,” the report concludes. shared by NYSNA.
The other side of ShiftMed’s research shows that as the healthcare industry has evolved, more administrative positions are becoming available for people trained as nurses.
This trend continues to move these professionals away from primary care.
“In addition, as time passes and nurses retire, fewer students are enrolling and They complete nursing school. The lower enrollment is partly due to the fact that students currently have many more options for other careers available,” the report highlights.
According to some requests from NYSNA, it is a priority to increase recruitment, improve salary policies to retain these essential workers and the working conditions are reviewed.
There are some lights for next year. Governor Kathy Hochul confirmed a historic multi-year investment in health care of $17 billion , in the budget of the fiscal year 2021, which includes a special bonus for health workers to “balance” low salaries.
The budget will be divided into several different categories, with a point of focus on creating better conditions for this essential workforce.
“That as a bonus is just a relief. It’s like giving an aspirin for pain to a cancer patient. The reality is that there are many vacancies. And if things go at this rate, it will only be a way to compensate professionals who are doing the work of two and three people,” said María Contreras, an intensive care nurse at a hospital in the Bronx.
In upstate New York, the hospital vacancy rate is 10.5%, double what it was before the pandemic, Gary Fitzgerald, president and CEO of the Iroquois Healthcare Association, a health care organization, told local media.
Nurses to the staffing committee
From this year 2023 Law S is in force in New York .768-A/A.108-B, which requires nurses to s be included in the committees that establish the staffing of the hospitals.
Historically this guild was out of that conversation. But they will be incorporated as of 2022.
In light of this legislation, representatives of unionized professional nurses and auxiliaries from each hospital center have the right to supervise staffing plans such as matrices or grids that indicate how many patients are assigned to each nurse and the number of auxiliary personnel in each unit.
Hospitals: “We operate with reduced margins”
The American Hospital Association in the midst of this crisis has also shown its own accounts in this year’s reports.
“ The pandemic has strained the finances of hospitals and healthcare systems. Many hospitals operate with very low margins, so even small increases in expenses can have dramatic negative effects on the operation”, highlights a report.
This association highlights that the increases in expenses have been harder to bear in light of rising inflation and rising input prices.
In fact, despite modest revenue growth compared to pre-pandemic levels, median hospital operating margins shrank 3.8% for purposes of 2021 compared to levels prior to the COVID-19 public health crisis 10.
However, they also consider that they continue to seek new strategies in the face of the challenge of recruiting ar and hire more specialized personnel and guarantee optimal care that characterizes the country’s private health system.
Work overload:
1 in 3 nurses have left NY health centers for work overload. 5 patients on average by law must attend each nurse.