Many Facilities, One Goal
By Margaret Franks, RN, BSN
As the NYSNA healthcare staffing coordinator, I have been working with our members statewide to identify where we can help nurses at the facility and state level to improve staffing. Employers have shown that their primary focus continues to be on improving their bottom line, which frequently means that nurses are working short-staffed, without adequate frontline support staff or a combination of both.
Seeing Staffing Around the State
I have been working with multiple Clinical Staffing Committees (CSC) to educate and empower members as employers frequently try to dictate the meeting agenda and discussion and override staff. Although we have one staffing law, each employer interprets and follows it differently, leading to the need for individualized approaches at each facility. As I travel statewide, I’m struck by how similar management agendas are, no matter the size, owner or location, and the similarity in the nurse’s response — to stand up and advocate for themselves, their profession and their patients. This was very evident on Long Island where regionally there is chronic understaffing despite some of our wealthier systems owning many facilities, including Northwell, Mount Sinai and Catholic Health. I have worked with nurses at Northwell/Huntington, Peconic Bay, South Shore and Catholic Health/St. Charles, and we have been able to change the narrative at their CSC. Nurses are sharing information with each other so they can address staffing issues all across Long Island.
Staffing issues are not just limited to the private sector, and I am working with the nurses at NYC Health+Hospitals (H+H)/Jacobi and attending the NYC H+H monthly Nursing Practice Council meetings to identify areas for improvement. I visited Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo and handed out staffing palm cards so staff can have patients, family and visitors scan a QR code to file a complaint form with New York State Department of Health (DOH). To date, I have distributed approximately 11,000 palm cards to members, staff and NYSNA representatives. DOH has traditionally responded to complaints from the public more quickly than to those from healthcare workers, so this is an effective way of engaging the public to fight with us on their behalf.
Recent Staffing Victories
NYSNA is celebrating recent staffing victories at The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Maimonides Medical Center, Northwell/Staten Island University Hospital and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. We also won recent arbitration victories at Ellis Hospital, Montefiore Nyack and NewYork-Presbyterian Children’s Hospital. Any victory reflects a lot of nurses’ and NYSNA staff’s hard work behind the scenes, and there are valuable lessons we all can learn from and build on.
Sharing Information Statewide
NYSNA started the Statewide Staffing Committee (Resolution 21, NYSNA Convention 2025) that meets online each quarter and gives nurses a forum to discuss arbitrations, CSCs, DOH visits and staffing concerns. All nurses are invited to attend and hear how fellow members are collecting data for grievances and arbitrations and how they have been able to get DOH in to investigate staffing at their facility. NYSNA also has a staffing section in the My-Membership section of the NYSNA website where you can see DOH investigative reports, corrective plans of action, arbitration victories and links to staffing resources. Each section also has an area where you can comment or ask a question so we can follow up.
At NYSNA, we recognize that the staffing law has its limitations, and to that end, we are working with other healthcare unions so that we have a unified approach to necessary amendments. Although facilities are supposed to include measures of acuity in their staffing plan, the majority fail to.
Resolution 17 from the NYSNA Convention 2025 asked us to work on developing an acuity tool that nurses could use statewide. To date, University of Vermont Health/Elizabethtown Community Hospital nurses have reported that they use the acuity tool in EPIC, and Ellis Hospital nurses have reported that they use the American Nursing Association acuity tool. Westchester Medical Center is piloting an acuity tool, and members will report back on its efficacy.
The staffing fight is multipronged, and NYSNA members can address it in multiple ways depending on the situation. If anyone would like me to come to their CSC, interregional, bargaining or labor bargaining unit meeting or town hall to discuss safe staffing, please reach out to me at margaretfranks@nysna.org.