Empty shoes symbolize critical shortage
PEF calls for passage of safe-staffing laws
By DENYCE DUNCAN LACY
Against a backdrop of hundreds of pairs of shoes lined up on the steps of the state Capitol, PEF leaders called on New York’s elected officials in May to pass “safe staffing” legislation for nurses.
“These empty shoes represent the number of nurses the state is short in its acute care, teaching and research hospitals and other facilities,” PEF President Roger Benson told reporters.
“The nursing shortage has reached the crisis stage in the public sector, as it has in the private sector.
“This shortage of nearly 900 state nurses is the direct result of nurses fleeing the profession because of forced overtime, substandard salaries and management’s failure to respond to nurses’ concerns about quality patient care,” Benson continued.
“We are here to ask state leaders to pass the laws needed to begin filling these shoes.”
Benson said PEF nurses work with the most difficult mentally ill and mentally retarded clients, and with alcoholics, substance abusers, prison inmates and children who have been abused or who have criminal records. PEF nurses also conduct research and work on statewide public-health issues, including prevention of tuberculosis, rabies and West Nile virus, among others.
SPEAKING OUT — NYS Assembly Dep. Maj. Ldr. Ron Canestrari (above) and PEF nurses June Edwards and Debbie Egel (below) call for better pay, working conditions for nurses.
Can’t get or keep nurses
PEF Nurses Committee co-chair June Edwards of Syracuse said the problems are reflected in the state’s inability to recruit and retain nurses in its hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Edwards is a nurse at the State University of New York’s Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse.
“Who will fill these shoes under the current conditions?” Edwards asked.
“I’ve been a registered nurse for 24 years and, yesterday, a well-qualified nurse with 15 years of state service told me, ‘I don’t know if I can do this much longer.’
“We need to tackle these issues that affect New York hospitals and other healthcare settings,” Edwards added. “Require adequate staffing levels. Recognize the nursing shortage as a long-term problem. Ban mandatory overtime. Provide proper training. Increase salaries. Improve the retirement packages. Pass legislation for disclosure and whistle blowing.
“If we do not make these changes, there will be no one to fill these shoes,” Edwards warned.
And PEF Nurses Committee co-chair Debbie Egel — a registered nurse at Creedmoor Addiction Treatment Center in Queens — added that public-sector nurses face more problems because they care for more difficult patients than those in the private sector.
“My facility recently had a patient transferred from another state agency,” Egel said. “Elliot was a complicated case, as he was medically compromised, mentally ill, chemically addicted and had a criminal record. He’s our average patient!
“While on the unit, Elliot became enraged and assaulted an EMS (emergency medical services) worker who was called to assist our staff. This event had a negative effect on Elliot, the other patients and the staff. Could this have been prevented? Yes, with better staffing.”
New laws would help
State Assembly Members Ron Canestrari of Cohoes and Patricia Eddington of Patchogue joined the union in calling for measures to address the nursing shortage and related issues.
PEF nurses and union leaders returned to the Capitol the next day to ask state lawmakers to support the following legislation aimed at creating safe staffing levels and better working conditions for nurses:
• S4779 — Safe Staffing Bill. Creates a uniform model to develop enforceable guidelines for safe nurse staffing in all health care settings.
• A7127/S3515 — Mandatory Overtime Bill. Ends excessive mandatory overtime by prohibiting employees from requiring nurses to work beyond their regularly scheduled shift.
• A3259/S53660 — Whistleblower or Anti-Gag Legislation. Protects health-care workers from retaliation if they report unsafe health practices.
• A2581/S510 — Nursing Care Quality Protection Act. Requires hospitals to disclose the number of their licensed nurses and the ratio of nurses to patients.
• A7284/S1830 — Exempt Clause Repeal Bill. Repeals the exemption to the Nursing Practice Act that allows unlicensed individuals to provide nursing care in state facilities for the mentally ill, mentally retarded and developmentally disabled.