20 MAY 6, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
As National Nurses Week approaches, New York
seeks ‘Safe Staffing’ for the state’s caregivers
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@ROBBPOZ
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 sacrifice 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 staffing 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 Staffing” standards for medical
centers in the Empire State.
Such standards — which include
establishing a minimum patient-tonurse
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 staffing.
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 Staffing bills. “You could
imagine we were at a deficit 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 staffing, 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 staffing 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 Staffing 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
File photo by Todd Maisel
enforcing them, the NYSNA noted.
Members of the public will also be
able to view the staffing plans for
each hospital on the DOH website.
The legislation also includes a
mandate that the DOH create new
minimal staffing 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 Staffing bills due to pass
both chambers of the state legislature
Tuesday, and be 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 Staffing
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 figuring out a mechanism
that will have a positive impact on
their patients.”
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