NYSNA Nurses Protect Nurse Practice in New York State Budget

The FY 2026-2027 New York State budget has finally passed—and NYSNA nurses' relentless advocacy led to a number of critical victories for nurses, our patients, and our nursing practice!

Preventing Patients from Staying Home All Alone

A chief priority for NYSNA nurses this budget season was keeping the dangerous Hospital at Home proposal out of New York state’s final budget. Under Hospital at Home programs, acute care patients are monitored virtually in their homes instead of receiving in-person, around-the-clock expert nursing care in a hospital. NYSNA nurses traveled to Albany twice this spring — in addition to launching a statewide social media and advertising campaign and gathering thousands of petition signatures in opposition to the proposal — to warn legislators that the program would reduce real nursing care, shift the responsibility and costs of care onto patients and their families, enable for-profit contractors to upcharge vulnerable patients, and cut hospital staff and capacity statewide, increasing pressure to close inpatient units or entire hospitals in rural and underserved communities. Elected officials ultimately listened to nurses’ expert opinions and rejected the dangerous proposal.  

NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said, “This is a victory for every patient in New York. Nurses refused to stay quiet while corporate interests tried to push a program that would leave patients home all alone, with no hospital, no team, and no around-the-clock care. We know what our patients need because we are at the bedside every single day, and we carried their voices straight to the halls of power in Albany.”

Victories for Our Nursing Practice

In addition to NYSNA nurses’ successful advocacy around the Hospital at Home proposal, we also scored several more victories relating to nursing practice standards. Preliminary draft budgets included a number of dangerous proposals, which we were able to remove from the final budget, including:

• The proposal to allow “unlicensed medication aides” to administer medications in nursing homes.  
• The proposal to allow “medical assistants” working in out-patient settings and physician offices to administer vaccinations to patients under physician supervision. 
• The proposal to extend paramedicine programs and allow EMTs to engage in nursing practice in non-emergency settings.

In addition to removing these dangerous proposals from the final budget, nurses’ advocacy also led to an extension of the Nurse Practitioner Modernization Act for another four years, until 2030, and legislation to tighten the oversight and regulation of temporary staffing agencies.  

What’s Next?

Though budget negotiations have wrapped up, the legislative session will continue until mid-June. As such, NYSNA nurses will continue to advocate to strengthen New York’s healthcare system and workforce, especially as New Yorkers across the state brace themselves for the impacts of the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act and in the face of their continued attacks on workers, patients, and marginalized communities.