Find the full story here.

By Sarah Belle Lin

Public hospital nurses rallied outside of Harlem Hospital on Tuesday demanding higher pay, on par with private-sector nurses, and better staffing levels across New York City’s municipal hospitals.

The nurses, who were joined by elected officials and community allies, shared their experiences at the annual Board of Directors meeting for New York City’s Health+Hospitals System, the country’s largest public healthcare system.  

The rally, held prior to the board meeting, was organized by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the state’s largest union representing 42,000 registered nurses, and took place three months after private-sector nurses went on strike. Around 9,000 nurses are currently involved in the union’s contract negotiations, according to NYSNA. 

NYSNA president Nancy Hagans, a critical care nurse at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, said in a statement that 42 nurses testified for approximately five hours about the crisis of understaffing and high turnover at a separate union contract bargaining session with the city on Tuesday. 

Nurses spoke out during the board meeting about caring for Black and brown patients and the frustration they experience when there aren’t enough nurses at their bedsides.

“Nurses are calling for New York City to do the right thing and work with us to recruit and retain enough nurses,” Hagans said. “That starts with pay equity for public-sector nurses.”

Hagans said in a statement that nurses testified about being unable to provide emotional support to parents with sick children, working 12-hour shifts with no breaks, to there not being enough nurses to safely staff a neonatal intensive care unit or emergency room. NYC’s public health facilities predominantly serve Black, Hispanic, and immigrants, and are themselves staffed by nurses from those demographics.