New York Nurses Press For Higher Staffing Levels
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- About 700 nurses and supporters, pressing for higher staffing levels, participated in a boisterous lunchtime rally Wednesday outside the offices of the Greater New York Hospital Association.
They're backing a bill in the state Legislature that would set minimum staffing levels for hospital nurses. The hospital association does not support the legislation.
Participants carried signs that read "Our Patients Need Safe Staffing NOW."
New York Nurses Press For Higher Staffing Levels
"Research has shown that one nurse taking care of four patients improves the quality of life and actually saves life," Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, president of the New York State Nurses Association, told WCBS 880's Marla Diamond.
"These nurses are taking care of eight and nine patients," added Sheridan-Gonzalez, an emergency room nurse at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. "It's impossible."
Brooklyn Borough President and former state Sen. Eric Adams supported the nurses Wednesday.
"Now it's time to take the fight to the streets," he said during the Manhattan rally. "We have to pass this on."
The hospital association says its mission is to provide safe, high-quality care. But it adds that "no single staffing formula works in every situation."
The association says it has "the deepest respect and admiration" for nurses.
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