(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Hospital SOS: New York Strike Compounding Our Ongoing Catastrophic Nursing Shortage! [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-01-10 1/9/23 Update: Well, here we go, just as I predicted when I posted this diary below in September, a year ago. (Not this exact strike, but the causes behind it.) Starting at 6 AM today, over 7,000 nurses walked out of 2 NYC hospitals according to the news I’m watching now! OMG, my mind really can’t comprehend the consequences to those patients. I would assume this has the power to totally shut those hospitals down. I’d like to quote a lovely young L&D nurse being interviewed. The wording may not be exact, but I’ll repeat as closely as I can. Question: “Why are you guys on strike now? What do you want the public to understand?” “I think we’re all out here because we find it very important to put our patients first. We don’t think about how much anyone makes, or what they do for a living, we want to take care of our patients, it doesn’t matter. We want to make sure we give the best care. We need enough nurses, we will care for those patients. I mean, to make sure we’re getting our breaks so we’re rested enough to care for these patients.” Question: “Why strike now, you haven’t done it since you started your career, why now?” “I haven’t done it. I think I would do it now because it’s so important. People aren’t going to become nurses any more. If this keeps becoming the norm, and travel nurses becomes the big thing, it’s all about money, it can’t just be about money. People become nurses, they don’t just become nurses about the money. I didn’t become a nurse to become a millionaire, I knew I wasn’t going to be a millionaire. I became a nurse because I want to help patients. I love helping people. I love babies, they’re in labor and delivery, that’s why I became a nurse. Not about money! Question: “Let’s talk about the ratio between nurses and patients. What are you guys saying?” “It’s a little different on labor and delivery. I know it’s a lot worse on other units because, labor and delivery, you can’t be in two deliveries at one time. It sometimes happens, but it’s definitely worse on other units. You really know, it’s 10 to 15 patients at a time for one nurse, and that’s just, I mean 12 hours straight with no lunch and no time to sit down and eat food, it’s not right. We can’t take care of patients if we can’t take care of ourselves.” Bingo! She confirmed every single point I made. And my solutions! My knowledge came from 25 years of nursing that ended way too soon because it almost killed me. And I let it happen. Apparently, 25 years, 25 long, hard years has not changed a damn thing for nurses. Are you kidding me? Apparently not. How’s that workin’ for “them” ?? Original story Sept. 2021 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/10/2146505/-Hospital-SOS-New-York-Strike-Compounding-Our-Ongoing-Catastrophic-Nursing-Shortage Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/