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More than 7,000 nurses at two New York City hospitals went on strike on Monday, saying their concerns around staffing issues had not been addressed by management.
Talks failed on Sunday night. At 6am on Monday, nurses went on strike at Mount Sinai medical center on the Upper East Side and Montefiore medical center in the Bronx.
The nurses, who are part of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), say management has failed to fill critical vacancies and make pay competitive to attract new staff.
Unfilled positions have forced nurses to attend to an excessive number of patients at once, the strikers say, even for vulnerable patients who require one-to-one care.
On the Upper East Side, thousands of nurses walked the picket line, wearing red and waving signs bearing their demand for safer staff ratios.
Bianca Russo, 27 and a nurse in the Mount Sinai neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for almost five years, said nurses were often caring for three to four sick infants at a time, though NICU patients should be treated one-to-one.
Nurses were left to change, feed and provide medical care for multiple infants at once, she said.
“We don’t have enough staff members to take care of one of the most vulnerable populations in this hospital,” Russo said, adding: “We’re in a really tight timeframe and it’s just not fair to the babies.
