SICK OF DOUBLE SHIFTS! — PEF nurses Dee Dodson, above, and Debbie Egel, below, urge lawmakers to end mandatory OT at this noon-hour rally on the Capitol steps. — Photo by John Epting END MANDATORY OT, STAT! — PEF Secretary-Treasurer Jane Hallum joins PEF nurses from across NYS for a rally at the Capitol in April. — Photo by Sherry Halbrook

PEF leads demo to improve nurses’ working conditions, patient care By DENYCE DUNCAN LACY Dressed in bright blue hospital scrubs, more than 300 of PEF’s nurses from around the state converged on the state Capitol in late April to call for an end to mandatory overtime for nurses. The nurses literally wore their message to state lawmakers — the blue scrubs bore the symbol of an electrocardiogram flat-line, and the slogan “Revive nursing care: stop mandatory overtime.” The nurses took time out from their jobs in state hospitals, psychiatric centers, group homes and programs for the developmentally disabled, prisons and in various state agencies to lobby for better working conditions and quality patient care. “Severe understaffing and long hours of mandatory overtime are forcing nurses to flee the profession, and are eroding the quality of patient care,” PEF President Roger Benson told the demonstrators. “It’s time to force management to stop taking advantage of nurses, and to start taking responsibility to correct these unhealthy working conditions.” Benson said the union is urging lawmakers to pass legislation this year to ban mandatory overtime for nurses and require hospitals to establish safe staffing ratios. “These bills will help stop the vicious cycle of short staffing and mandatory overtime, encourage experienced nurses to return to patients’ bedsides, and help attract students to enter the profession,” Benson added. And the demonstrators also heard from Debbie Egel, co-chair of the PEF Statewide Nurses Committee and a registered nurse at Creedmoor Addiction Treatment Center in Queens. Egel told the crowd it has become increasingly common for nurses to be forced to work double shifts of 16 hours — often with little advance notice — to make up for staffing shortages. She said it just makes sense to limit forced overtime for nurses, just as time limits have been set on other critical jobs. “There are limits on the number of hours airline pilots are allowed to fly, and on the hours truck drivers are allowed to drive,” Egel said. “Yet, nurses — who make life and death decisions every day — are mandated to remain on the job, even when they are mentally and physically exhausted and more prone to make mistakes. We must revive nursing care as soon as possible, with an end to mandatory overtime and an end to short staffing.” “Nurses are sick,” added PEF Statewide Nurses Committee member Doris Dodson, a registered nurse from SUNY Stony Brook Hospital on Long Island. “We are sick and tired of being forced to work overtime. We’re sick of being forced to choose between our jobs and our families. We are sick of placing our patients at risk because we have to work, even when we’re fatigued. “Let’s tell our legislators to make New York put an end to the abuse of mandatory overtime,” Dodson concluded. The demonstrators also heard from two of the legislators who support the bill to ban mandatory overtime, state Sen. Thomas Morahan and Assembly Member Patrick Manning. Following the rally, the PEF nurses marched to the Empire State Plaza Convention Center for a working lunch to prepare to lobby lawmakers in their Albany offices later in the day. PEF Nurses Committee Co-Chair June Edwards and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver addressed the nurses there.