Nurses Week
Safe Staffi ng in sight just in time for National Nurses Week
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.
With New York set to observe National
Nurses Week (May 6-12) — an annual salute
recognizing the caregivers who work
tireless to heal and comfort the sick — the
nurses of the Empire State are set to receive
some much-needed support from Albany.
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 long-term care facilities after
years of budget cuts and reduced staffi ng.
As Nancy Hagens, NYSNA treasurer
and a registered nurse at Maimonides
Hospital 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 staffi ng 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 staffi ng plans, with
the state Health Department (DOH) taking
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
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,
which were sent to the desk of Governor
Andrew Cuomo for his signature.
Rivera called the bills’ imminent passage
“a historic moment,” noting that he
has participate 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.”
14 May 6, 2021 Schneps Media