Story by Edwin J. Viera
Some New York hospitals are not adequately staffing nurses, according to a new report.
The New York State Nurses Association report showed between January and October 2024, hospitals failed to staff intensive care units and critical care patients at the state-mandated ratio more than 50% of the time. The report also said most hospitals do not publicly post staffing ratios as state law requires.
Margret Franks, a registered nurse at Vassar Hospital in Poughkeepsie, said it greatly affects patient care.
“We were regularly coming into a shift where we had eight patients when we were only supposed to have five, with one nurse at six on a 36-bed unit,” Franks outlined. “Eight patients means out of every hour that you’re there you can only give seven and a half minutes worth of care to that patient in your shift.”
She argued it is impossible to provide good patient care and do everything a nurse has to in a given shift. While one recommendation is hiring more and retaining nurses, it is not so simple. Reports have shown labor expenses at New York hospitals have grown 36% since 2019. While 2024 is the second year they declined, it is still double what they were in 2019.
Other report recommendations included the Department of Health increasing transparency so people see a hospital’s actual staffing levels, enforcing safe staffing levels, and expanding nurse recruitment and retention.
Franks stressed the issues outlined in the report exist beyond her workplace.
“This is not a problem that’s exclusive to the Hudson Valley where I work,” Franks pointed out. “It’s not a problem that’s even exclusive to New York State, it’s nationwide. The reason for this is because you have these corporations coming in, taking over health care systems, and they’re all using the same playbook.”
Many studies have shown the ongoing nursing shortage is only set to continue due to many factors. Chief among them is the high-stress nurses face in their work. Franks feels the shortage is not about people not wanting to enter the profession. Instead, she said it is about nurses wanting better work environments.
“Each facility has to create the kind of work environment somebody would want to willingly go into and work,” Franks asserted. “It’s not that the nurses who are not at the bedside right now don’t want to work, it’s just that they don’t want to work in the situations that have been created by the facilities.”
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