More than 7,000 nurses walked off the job Monday at two major New York City hospitals due to what they say are massive staffing shortages causing widespread burnout and hindering their ability to care for their patients adequately.
According to CBS News, up to 3,600 nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and 3,500 at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx are participating in the walkouts.
The strike reportedly began at 6 a.m. on Monday after The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and management at Mount Sinai and Montefiore failed to reach an agreement on Sunday.
NYSNA, which represents the workers, stated it was forced to take drastic action due to chronic understaffing, which leaves nurses to care for too many patients at once.
“Nurses don’t want to strike. Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients,” the union said in a statement on Sunday.
The nurses, who are part of the NYSNA, say management has failed to fill critical vacancies and make pay competitive to attract new staff.
An intensive care unit (ICU) nurse at Montefiore Medical Center told The Guardian that ICU staff frequently cared for three to four patients at once, rather than the one to two that should be assigned to them.
Garcia also said nurses regularly worked 12- or 13-hour shifts without a complete break or even a break at all. “It’s terribly unsafe for the patients, terribly unsafe for the nurse,” she said.
Martin Speiser shared how the staffing shortages at Mount Sinai Hospital take a toll on hospital workers. “We’re stressed and there’s been no end in sight. There’s been no light at the end of the tunnel for us,” he told The Guardian.
“Medications fall behind, labs fall behind. I can’t talk to doctors as often as I need to. I can’t update patients and families. There’s not enough time,” he added.
The hospitals began preparing for a walkout by transferring patients, redirecting ambulances to other facilities, deferring non-emergency medical procedures, and arranging for temporary staffing.
Montefiore Medical Center said in a statement that it “offered a 19.1% compounded wage increase and promised to create more than 170 new nursing positions ahead of the strike.” Mount Sinai told ABC News that it offered a 19.1% raise in wages, but nurses rejected it and called the strike “reckless” amid a COVID-19, flu, and RSV surge.
The nurses’ strike in New York City enters day two on Tuesday, with no contract agreement between NYSNA and the two hospitals yet.