7,000 ‘exhausted and burnt out’ NYC nurses walk out

More than 7,000 nurses at two major New York City hospitals walked off the job Monday, arguing immense staffing shortages are causing widespread burnout and hindering their ability to properly care for their patients.

The nurses say they are working long hours in unsafe conditions without enough pay – a refrain echoed by several other nurses strikes across the country over the past year. The union representing the nurses said an offer of 19% pay hikes isn’t enough to solve staffing shortages.

This is the latest in a series of strikes in the health care industry in recent years. Those union members who were on the front lines during the three-year battle with the Covid pandemic say the system is no longer able to function with the widespread shortages that arose during those years.

“We’ve been fighting for working under safer conditions,” Warren Urquhart, a transplant nurse at Mount Sinai, told CNN Monday while on the picket line. “We do the best we can every day. There’s something wrong inside the hospital. That’s why we’re outside the hospital.”

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Source: CNN, 9 January 2023