Nurses, families share burdens of understaffing By SHERRY HALBROOK Every year, Americans celebrate National Nurses’ Week from May 6, National Nurses’ Day to May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. This year, the focus on nursing is more poignant than ever because it has become an endangered profession. Years of taking nurses for granted has taken its toll. And America is being called to pay the piper just as the aging Baby Boom generation threatens to push health care services to their limits. “We are pushing the state Legislature hard to improve pay and working conditions for nurses,” says June Edwards, co-chair of the PEF Nurses Committee. “Our members and our union are becoming more and more focused and effective in pressing the lawmakers and the governor to deal with our issues.” Issues vary, same cause The effects of the nursing shortage and understaffing are felt in different ways at different worksites, and patients aren’t the only ones who suffer. At SUNY’s University Hospital in Syracuse, for instance, understaffing has nurses caught in the grip of mandatory overtime that leaves them struggling to maintain quality care for their families as well as their patients. Hundreds of miles away at Pilgrim Psychiatric Center on Long Island, mandatory OT is no longer the issue. There, understaffing and the unavailability of weekend pass days have locked into a vicious cycle that leaves nurses feeling defeated and frustrated. These are vexing problems with no obvious solutions that have nurses, the union and management scrambling to find answers that are both fair and practical. “The underlying problem behind all of these things is the lack of nurses,” says George Sobky, a pharmacist at Pilgrim who, as council leader of PEF Division 233, has become all too familiar with the nursing shortage and the issues it creates. “Somehow we have to get more nurses,” Sobky says. As council leader of PEF Division 320 at University Hospital in Syracuse, Edwards is frustrated by the large number of nurses who are dropping out of nursing. “A nationwide study showed half a million nurses in this country are not working,” Edwards says. But it’s easy, she says, to understand why they leave the profession they love. No rest for the weary “Nurses here worry every day that they will be mandated to stay on the job at the end of their shift and work another one,” Edwards says. “Nurses are pretty good about not abusing sick time. They try to schedule their doctor’s and dentist’s appointments for their pass days. And they come in to work when they aren’t really up to it. They don’t want to call in because they know someone will probably have to stay and work a second shift,” Edwards says. “That makes it all the more upsetting when you can’t even get a day off when you really need it,” she says. “I know a nurse who couldn’t get off to attend her own college graduation. “I had to give back three days of personal time and I am maxed out on vacation days because I couldn’t get time off to use them,” Edwards says. “Lots of other nurses have the same problem.” Vicious circle “Pass days are the problem of the hour at Pilgrim,” Sobky says. “Nurses with the most seniority get first choice, and they usually take the weekends and the most important holidays off. The new hires have to work every weekend and most holidays. After a while, they get tired and quit.” Between the state hiring freeze and the steady loss of newer nurses, Pilgrim is losing ground in the battle against understaffing. While newer nurses are likely to leave when they get too frustrated, many nurses are caught. They have too many years at Pilgrim to leave, yet too few to get weekends off or retire. Linda Keenan has worked there 14 years and is still waiting to get her weekends off. She has a theory that the solution lies in shifting the maximum day-time staffing levels to Tuesday through Thursday, so that more nurses could get pass days on or near the weekend — Friday through Monday. “The middle of the week is the busiest time, when we need more staff,” Keenan reasons. “Nurses have a lot more to do on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but that is when many of us must take our pass days.” “Even after 15 years at Pilgrim, you still don’t have enough seniority to get the weekends off here,” says Cindy DeFilippis — a nurse at the psychiatric center since 1983. “You have golden handcuffs. Because having 15 years here, is like having two years anywhere else.” Attention PEF nurses: Get the latest news for nurses. Just visit the PEF Website at www.pef.org and click on RN.

What would you tell someone considering a career in nursing? “I would tell them to go right ahead. As a nurse, you have so many avenues. You can go anywhere. But make sure you get an extensive background in medical-surgical nursing. You need that good foundation, no matter where you go or what specialty you choose. It’s the essence of nursing.” — Jerry Holmes, RN, Pilgrim PC “Nursing is a real tough field to go into, but it’s a wonderful field. It’s not Monday-through-Friday, nine-to-five and you’re done. You had better be prepared for double shifts, no weekends or holidays off and mandated overtime. When a nursing student who interned here told me, ‘I’m a single parent. I can’t work another shift.’ I told her to get out of nursing.” — Cindy DeFilippis, RN, Pilgrim PC “I would definitely tell them to stop and think about it. You really have to be dedicated to work weekends and holidays. If you are family oriented, it can be a problem.” — Linda Keenan, RN, Pilgrim PC “If you want a family life, I say: Don’t do it.” — June Edwards, RN, University Hospital • PEF asks nurses: What issues matter most to you? CLICK HERE FOR ANSWERS • Helping Pilgrim patients in search of healthier states of mind CLICK HERE FOR STORY