NYSNA Healthcare Workers at UVM-CVPH Speak Out for Safe Staffing and a Fair Contract
For immediate release: April 29, 2026
Contact: Joseph Celestin | press@nysna.org | 518-776-8337
Kristi Barnes | press@nysna.org | 646-853-4489
NYSNA HEALTHCARE WORKERS AT UVM-CVPH SPEAK OUT FOR SAFE STAFFING AND A FAIR CONTRACT
Nurses and Healthcare Professionals Sound the Alarm to Hold Management Accountable on Rampant Hospital Understaffing
Management Puts Forward a Plan That Makes Safety Worse—And Themselves Less Accountable
Plattsburgh, N.Y.– On Wednesday, April 29, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) nurses and healthcare professionals at University of Vermont-Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (UVM-CVPH) spoke out for a fair contract that protects safe patient care. Understaffing is a widespread problem in the hospital and puts quality patient care at risk, but UVM-CVPH administration is trying to avoid accountability for safe staffing standards in the contract.
Last year, UVM-CVPH hospital administrators made the patient safety standards required by New York State’s staffing law less safe in much of the hospital, over the objections of NYSNA members. At the bargaining table, the hospital does not want to be held accountable for safety standards at all. NYSNA members have proposed several solutions to address the hospital staffing crisis, but hospital management instead wants changes that only stand to make staffing worse. Healthcare workers and our allies called on UVM-CVPH to listen to those who care for this community and spoke out about current conditions and safety concerns.
Photos are available at https://www.facebook.com/nynurses/
NYSNA members called attention to the crisis of understaffing at UVM-CVPH, especially in the medical surgical units, where there are too few frontline caregivers to care for patients. Nurses and healthcare professionals are often asked to care for more patients than deemed safe.
NYSNA Eastern Regional Director and local NYSNA nurse leader Vicki Davis-Courson, RN, said, “Many of us are here because we are deeply concerned about patient safety, chronic understaffing, and the hospital's attempts to skirt the state staffing law and our contract. We need the hospital to be held accountable, and that’s why we’re fighting for safe staffing in our contract. If we don’t ensure our contracts promote our patients’ safety, who will?”
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said, “UVM-CVPH nurses and healthcare professionals are a pillar of their community, and they are fighting for safe staffing for their patients. Plattsburgh and the surrounding communities deserve the best care possible, and that can only happen when there are enough nurses and healthcare professionals to care for patients. NYSNA nurses and healthcare professionals are united and are demanding that CVPH do the right thing and settle a fair contract that will protect care in the North Country.”
Nurses and healthcare professionals contend that winning a fair contract that delivers safe staffing will reduce burnout, improve worker retention, and ensure better patient outcomes.
NYSNA nurses and healthcare professionals have been united across the North Country and are fighting to improve care for their communities. Earlier this year, NYSNA nurses at UVM-Elizabethtown secured a fair contract and entrance into the NYSNA Benefit Fund, which will ensure that nurses have the affordable, high-quality health benefits they need to best care for their communities and their families. However, NYSNA nurses and healthcare professionals at Adirondack Medical Center, UVM-Alice Hyde Medical Center and UVM-Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital continue to bargain for fair contracts that protect safe patient care in the North Country.
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The New York State Nurses Association represents more than 42,000 members in New York State. We are New York’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses. NYSNA is an affiliate of National Nurses United, AFL-CIO, the country's largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses, with more than 225,000 members nationwide.