MAY 2018
A NEWSLETTER FOR NYSNA RNs AT NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS
Nurses from Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn call for safe staffing throughout the NYC H+H system
Calls for Safe Staffing Heat Up H+H Annual Meetings As anyone who has ever attended a NYC Health + Hospitals annual meeting knows, these meetings can be long and somber affairs. But not when dozens of nurses show up, step up to the microphone, and start telling the truth about our challenges in providing care with chronic understaffing! NYSNA nurses did just that, explaining our daily realities, and speaking out passionately for the good of our patients and the communities we serve. At the first H+H Annual Board Meeting, held at Bellevue, LBU President Todd Schultz, RN, had this to say, “As an LBU we have been working with management locally to improve our staffing levels, and I know how hard they’re working to get us staff so I have to commend them for that, but the power to bring our staffing back up to safe levels isn’t sourced from the 14th floor of the H building. It comes from downtown and it comes from this board.” At the Queens Hospital meeting, Reggie Atangan, RN, said, “I’ve been a nurse here at Queens Hospital for 10 years, and I’ve been in the community for 40 years. I’m holding the 46 POAs I have filed in the last year. This works out to about 1 POA a week when I have experienced unsafe levels of staffing. I also have 24 POAs from other day shift nurses, representing about one a week for the past six months. I urge all of you to look into the hardships the nurses here have undergone.” At the Staten Island meeting, Anne Bové, RN, former NYSNA NYCH+H/Mayorals Executive Council President and current Secretary of the NYSNA Board of Directors,
testified, along with Pat Kane RN, NYSNA Treasurer and candidate for the 61st Assembly District in Staten Island. At the Kings County meeting, Judith Cutchin, RN and President, NYC H+H/Mayorals Executive Council said: “I was born in the NYC H+H system, I’m a nurse in the system, and I’m a life-long patient in the system. We do so many things well—from collaboration to translation services—in fact, better than what I see in private-sector hospitals. We need to put forward and build on the positive things we do. At Woodhull, we recently hired more nurses, which has made a difference and is a good start. We need more nurses throughout the H+H system.” Nurses in Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn were united in our call for safe staffing at all H+H facilities. So far, we have been encouraged by the response of the board. After giving testimony at the Queens Hospital meeting, Kesha Washington, RN, returned to work on the night shift in the ICU. Dr. Katz took her up on her offer to walk the floor of the ICU after the meeting to see first hand how staffing shortages impact frontline nurses and patients. As Lindella Artman, RN and LBU President at Queens Hospital said, “We believe that improving the quality of nursing care is critical to the success of any effort to restructure NYCHH and improve its financial situation. We are asking that NYCHH take the lead in implementing nurse to patient ratios in all of our facilities that are consistent with the Safe Staffing for Quality Care legislation that is currently pending in the State Legislature.” On May 23, nurses at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx will have a chance to speak truth to power. Email Henry. Rose@nysna.org to sign up as a speaker. Let’s go nurses!