State OKs ‘Safe Staffi ng’ for nurses
Healthcare workers rally during Nurses Week 2020. File photo by Todd Maisel
Caribbean Life, MAY 7-13, 2021 29
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
The names and images of no fewer
than three dozen New York nurses
who died of COVID-19 line a digital memorial
that the New York State Nurses
Association (NYSNA) created to honor
their sacrifi ce on the front lines of the
pandemic battle.
In many ways, the memorial serves
as a continued reminder of the pandemic’s
cost as well as the need to ensure
that all nurses in New York receive the
proper protection and staffi ng to safely
care for their patients.
On May 4, New York lawmakers
passed two bills aimed at creating
“Safe Staffi ng” standards for medical
centers in the Empire State.
Such standards — which include establishing
a minimum patient-to-nurse
ratio — have been items for which
nurses have long advocated, but had
been put on the back burner by Albany
lawmakers. The COVID-19 pandemic,
however, exposed the critical situation
nurses too often face in acute and longterm
care facilities after years of budget
cuts and reduced staffi ng.
As Nancy Hagens, NYSNA treasurer
and a registered nurse at Maimonides
Medical Center in Brooklyn,
described it, the staff quickly adapted
as the pandemic struck last year.
“Overnight, our med-surg (medical/
surgical) nurses had to become
ICU nurses,” Hagens said Tuesday
during a press conference on the Safe
Staffi ng bills. “You could imagine we
were at a defi cit to begin with. Now,
we have the pandemic, and as nurses,
we have to do what we needed to do in
order to care for our patients and save
as many lives as we can. We truly believe
that if we had enough staffi ng, if
we had a nurse-patient ratio, we could
have saved more lives.”
Aja Sciortino, a nurse in the pediatric
ICU unit at Westchester Medical
Center, underscored that point, emphasizing
that studies from the National
Institute of Health and others have
demonstrated that a patient’s health is
largely dependent upon how well the
nurses are able to care for them.
“We had situations where we
needed one-to-one patient to nurse ratios,
but sometimes we were up to two
to three patients to one nurse,” Sciortino
said. “Three patients to one nurse
puts nurses in danger, especially if
they (the patients) have a high acuity,
and are critically ill. These types of
staffi ng issues affect nursing satisfaction.
They endanger nursing licensure
and it leads to nursing burnout. Even
more importantly, it affects the safety
of our patients.”
The Safe Staffi ng legislation will
mandate that hospitals adopt staffing
plans created by committees of
frontline registered nurses and other
health care staff at each facility. These
plans will “clearly indicate patient assignments
for nurses and other direct
care staff by unit and shift,” according
to the NYSNA.
Hospitals across the Empire State
will be required to abide by the staffing
plans, with the state Health Department
(DOH) taking the lead on enforcing
them, the NYSNA noted. Members
of the public will also be able to view
the staffi ng plans for each hospital on
the DOH website.
The legislation also includes a mandate
that the DOH create new minimal
staffi ng standards for intensive care
and critical care units statewide by
Jan. 1, 2022.
Bronx state Senator Gustavo Rivera
and Orange County Assemblywoman
Aileen Gunther sponsored
the Safe Staffi ng bills due to pass both
chambers of the state legislature Tuesday,
and be sent to the desk of Gov. Andrew
Cuomo for his signature.
Rivera called the bills’ imminent
passage “a historic moment,” noting
that he has participated in so many
meetings about the Safe Staffi ng bills
very frequently in the 11 years he’s
served in the state Senate. He gave
credit to state Senate Majority Leader
Andrea Stewart-Cousins for working
to move the legislation forward to an
anticipated approval.
“Everybody came together and
knew this was something that needed
to be addressed,” he said. “We’re fi guring
out a mechanism that will have a
positive impact on their patients.”
Nurses Week