Why Thousands of Nurses Are Striking in NYC—and What It Could Mean for Patients

Almost 15,000 nurses at several major New York hospitals are on strike, raising concerns about how staffing shortages could affect the city’s health care system. The strike, which began on Monday morning, came as contract negotiations stalled after months of bargaining, according to the nurses’ union, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). It is impacting some of the city’s top medical centers: Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and Montefiore Medical Center. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Here’s what to know about the situation. Why are nurses on strike? The strikers’ specific demands vary between the several institutions the nurses walked out of, but the nurses’ union broadly said that its members were demanding improvements to staffing levels, health benefits, and protections against workplace violence. “Hospital management refuses to address our most important issues—patient and nurse safety,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said in a press release. “It is shameful that the city’s richest hospitals refuse to continue healthcare benefits for frontline nurses, refuse to staff safely for our patients, and refuse to protect us from workplace violence.” “Nurses do not want to strike,” Hagans continued, “but our bosses have forced us out on strike.” Hospital officials, though, have called some of the union’s requests too expensive and defended nurses’ salaries; a spokesperson for Mount Sinai told The New York Times that nurses there make an average of $162,000 a year, and that NYSNA’s asks would raise that amount to $275,000 over three years. “The health care system is under…

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