Photo: Screenshot
New York, NY — This week, NYSNA nurses launched a Times Square Spectacular ad campaign to shine the light on the plight of RNs in New York City’s private sector hospitals. Approximately 17,000 NYSNA members at twelve hospitals in New York City, including some of the biggest private hospitals such as Montefiore, Mt. Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian have contracts expiring on Dec. 31.
Watch the ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jogqkqm4XAk
And see it live: https://www.earthcam.com/cams/newyork/timessquare/?cam=tsstreet&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=1035b2c6-97dd-4ff0-abd3-ab00c5c60e59
The full-motion billboard, located at the major crossroads of Times Square, is part of a broader advertising campaign on New York City streets and subways to draw attention to NYSNA nurses’ fight for safe staffing, respect and quality care for all.
Hospital executives paid themselves millions in sky-high salaries and bonuses during the pandemic at the same time they hiked hospital prices. Nurses have been at the frontlines throughout the pandemic, risking and sometimes losing their lives to save ours, while many hospital executives worked from the comfort of their vacation homes. Now, some hospitals are considering cutting healthcare for COVID nurse heroes. When they get sick, nurses often turn to their own hospitals for care. With increased fees for services, that means some hospitals are lining their pockets from nurses getting sick at work, and now they don’t want to foot the bills.
NYSNA President and Maimonides nurse Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said: “It’s absolutely unconscionable that any hospital would even consider cutting healthcare benefits for the very same nurses that kept our city going during the worst of the pandemic. Some nurses are suffering from PTSD from facing mass death and illness. Others are suffering from Long COVID after getting sick saving lives. And some nurses lost their lives to COVID. Nurses are COVID heroes and should be treated with respect. We launched this ad campaign to let the public know what nurses are going through and ask for support in our fight for good working conditions, fair pay, safe staffing for our patients, and the healthcare benefits we need and deserve.”
With two-thirds of registered nurses across the country saying they are planning to leave the profession in the next two years, NYSNA nurses are sounding the alarm on possible healthcare cuts that would make it harder for nurses to stay at the bedside and could worsen the staffing crisis that has left caregivers burnt out and at their breaking point.
Nurses say that hospitals are not doing enough to keep them at the bedside – from safe staffing ratios to good healthcare benefits to competitive pay. On November 30, the City Council Hospitals Committee held a hearing on the state of nursing in New York City. Nurses testified about short staffing, burnout and how, Instead of supporting nurses, many of whom contracted COVID-19 at work while saving lives, hospital trustees of the NYSNA benefit fund are looking to cut healthcare for RNs. NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN co-authored an OpEd in the New York Daily News about struggles nurses are facing.
NYSNA nurses and allies say NYC can’t afford to wait another minute to address the hospital-created RN staffing crisis, as pediatric units and hospitals are already overflowing with RSV cases, and the threat of a tripledemic of COVID-19, RSV and flu looms as winter months approach.
The New York State Nurses Association represents more than 42,000 members in New York State. We are New York’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses. NYSNA is an affiliate of National Nurses United, AFL-CIO, the country’s largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses, with more than 225,000 members nationwide.
For more information, visit www.nysna.org.
