On Monday, 7,000 New York nurses at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan went on strike over massive short staffing.
While a Montefiore spokesperson said “the union leadership’s decision will spark fear” in the public, and a Mount Sinai representative called the strike “reckless,” the hospitals have understaffed while boosting executive pay and slashing charity care.
Nurses have faced extreme staff shortages since the COVID-19 pandemic began, with nurses in the emergency departments in New York City sometimes handling 20 patients at a time. That’s more than five times what is allowed by law in California, the only state with nurse-to patient-ratios enshrined in law. Such short staffing, say nurses, translates into poorer care for hospital patients.
“We’re not out here for ourselves, we are out here for our patients,” said Matt Allen, a union member-leader at Mount Sinai at a press conference Monday. “Our bosses created the
— source levernews.com | Matthew Cunningham-Cook | Jan 10, 2023