| | A Weekly Update for NYSNA Members | January 17, 2025 | |  | | | Nurses Voted the Most Trusted Profession for 23rd Year in a Row For the 23rd year in a row, Americans have ranked nurses as the most trusted profession! Nurses gain this trust every day through their commitment to caring for and advocating for patients and their communities. Congratulations, NYSNA members, on another year of earning this outstanding recognition! | | | |  | NYSNA Honors Martin Luther King Jr. Day NYSNA members honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When NYSNA members organize to eliminate health disparities and achieve health equity for our patients, we carry forward King’s vision of healthcare equity and social justice. King believed that health care is a fundamental right that should be accessible to all people — a core value of our union. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day and every day, we honor King’s words by organizing for quality healthcare and health equity for all New Yorkers. | | | |  | Centerlight Nurses Gain Community Support in Fight to Save Their Healthcare Centerlight Healthcare nurses are calling on community members to help save nurses’ healthcare and support them in their demand for a fair contract. Nurses lost their healthcare benefits at the end of 2024 when they refused to accept Centerlight management’s terrible “offer” that would have quadrupled their insurance costs. In addition to nurses speaking out in the press and filing an unfair labor practice charge, they canvassed their neighbors in the Bronx on Wednesday, Jan. 15, informing them of Centerlight management’s decision to cut off nurses’ healthcare during contract negotiations. Community members were outraged and eager to support nurses by signing a petition demanding Centerlight restore nurses’ healthcare and negotiate a fair contract. You can also support Centerlight nurses by adding your name and sharing the petition with friends and colleagues. | | | |  | Albany Med Ad Nominated for Writers Guild Association Award In September 2024, NYSNA produced this ad calling out Albany Medical Center’s failure to invest in their nurses. The ad has been nominated for a Writer’s Guild Association Award! The 30 second video highlights Albany Med leadership’s lavish spending on real estate investments and executive pay while nurses struggle to make ends meet and patient care suffers. Albany Med nurses have been drawing critical attention to these issues for months as they continue fighting for a fair contract. Ads like this one ensure public awareness and support in their fight to secure quality patient care for the capital region. Like the video and leave a message of solidarity with AMC nurses! | | | |  | Remembering Mary J. Finnin, RN, MSN It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Mary J. Finnin, RN, MSN, a beloved member of the NYSNA family. Mary was a dedicated NYSNA leader who served on the Board of Directors for many years in various roles, including the roles of Treasurer and Secretary. She won several awards for her nursing and public advocacy work and the Center for Nursing at the Foundation of New York State Nurses created the Mary J. Finnin Grant for Innovation in Oncology in her honor. Read her full obituary to learn more about her advocacy and accomplishments. Arrangements for Mary are as follows: Visitation: Friday, Jan. 17, 3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Michael J. Grant Funeral Homes of Brentwood, NY. Funeral: Saturday, Jan. 18 at 9:15 a.m.
Michael J. Grant Funeral Homes of Brentwood, NY, following a Funeral Mass at St. John of God Church, and a procession to St. John of God Cemetery In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Mary’s name to the Foundation of NYS Nurses. | | | |  | Add the New NYSNA Website to your Phone’s Home Screen! Have you seen the new NYSNA website yet? Check it out for the latest updates on our campaigns, member actions and how to get more involved in our union. You can also add the website to your phone’s home screen like an app to access your member information on the go! Instructions are available here. By adding the NYSNA website to your phone, you’ll be able to access new features in the My Membership section of your account. If you haven’t done so already, register here. Please note: When you set up your account for the first time, the site will ask you for both your email address and the mobile phone number you have on file with NYSNA. | | | | NY AFL-CIO President Publishes Letter to the Editor in Support of Albany Med Nurses The New York Labor movement continues to show solidarity with NYSNA nurses at Albany Med who have been fighting for a fair contract for nurses and capital region patients. This week, AFL-CIO New York President Mario Cilento wrote a Letter to the Editor in the Albany Times-Union expressing his support for nurses. “New York’s 2.5 million-member union movement stands in solidarity with nurses at Albany Med, fighting for patients’ safety, a fair contract, dignity and respect,” he said. Read the full letter here. After months of dealing with Albany Med management’s anti-union tactics, nurses remain steadfast in their commitment to protect safe, quality patient care in the capital region. | | | | Support Afya: Donate Supplies to Help Victims of the Southern California Wildfires Afya, a Yonkers-based nonprofit that works on disaster relief to ensure access to critical medical supplies, is responding to the devastating wildfires erupting in Southern California. NYSNA members can help victims by donating supplies or funds. The most needed items at this time are personal hygiene products. See this flyer for a full list of needed items. Afya has also put together an Amazon Wishlist for NYSNA members to purchase supplies directly. You can also donate funds through the Afya donation page. While volunteer opportunities with Afya are currently at capacity due to the generosity of our members, we will update NYSNA members when future opportunities arise through our weekly newsletter and our website. | | | |  | Celebrate Lunar New Year With NYSNA! On Sunday, Feb. 16, join NYSNA in welcoming the Year of the Snake! NYSNA nurses and healthcare professionals will gather with members of the communities we serve to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Join in the parade and celebration in Manhattan’s Chinatown by RSVPing. For more information, and help spread through word, download and share the flyer. | | | |  | Save the Date: NYSNA Lobby Day on March 11 Save the date for NYSNA Lobby Day on March 11, 2025. NYSNA members know that our fight for safe staffing, health equity, and more depends on our elected officials investing in healthcare and holding employers accountable. Share the flyer and reserve your seat on the bus today! | | | | Practice Alert: Required Completion of NYS Reporting Child Abuse Course All licensed health practitioners are required to repeat the Identification and Reporting New York State Child Abuse program, even if you have taken the program in the past. This is a one-time requirement that each individual practitioner must complete and send proof of completion to the New York State Education Department by April 1, 2025. The course is free for NYSNA members. To complete this requirement for free; set up your individual NYSNA account and be signed in; go to the Child Abuse Reporting Course register for and take the program; download your certificates of completion; and mail them to the New York State Education Department. Here is your NYSNA member ID in order to create an account: please reach out to membership. Please check our flyer for more information. | | | | Journal of the New York State Nurses Association The Journal of the New York Nurses Association is currently seeking papers. Authors are invited to submit scholarly papers, research studies, brief reports on clinical or educational innovations, and articles of opinion on subjects important to registered nurses. Of particular interest are papers addressing direct care issues. New authors and student authors are encouraged to submit manuscripts for publication. Check out the latest volume of the journal and read the guidelines for submission here. | | | | 2025 Nursing Education & Practice Courses NYSNA members can take advantage of FREE e-leaRN courses, including state-mandated offerings, standard of practice and certification review courses, as well as nursing practice workshops. Take a look at the complete course offering, learn more information on how to register here or register for the courses directly here. You must create an account and be signed into it to search the full catalog of classes and register for them at no cost! | | | | Upcoming NNU Workshops As part of National Nurses United, NYSNA members can now access free continuing education courses and workshops online. Learn more about workshops that advance your practice and empower union nurses. Check out these upcoming workshops: | | | | Seminar at Sea 2025 Join NYSNA on a weeklong cruise from Spain to Portugal on May 24-31, 2025. Not only will you get a chance to visit these beautiful countries, but you will also have the opportunity to obtain nursing continuing education credits and connect with colleagues from New York and throughout the country. You can find additional information in the informational flyer to learn about this unique and informative educational program and details on how to register for the cruise. | | | | Calling All Nurse Practitioners The NYSNA Nursing Education and Practice Department has added required and important educational offerings specifically for nurse practitioners (NPs). Register and sign in here to access the courses listed below: - Updated: New York State Mandatory Prescriber Education Guidance – For DEA Registration No. (four-hour online asynchronous program required to be taken every three (3) years).
- New and Required: Federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 and New York State Requirements for All DEA Registered Practitioners: Safe Prescribing of Controlled Substances 8 Hour Training (a one-time eight-hour online asynchronous program. The deadline for satisfying this new training requirement is the date of a practitioner’s next scheduled DEA registration submission—regardless of whether it is an initial registration or a renewal registration—on or after June 27, 2023).
- Mandated New York State Infection Control Training for Healthcare Professionals (asynchronous program required to be taken every four (4) years).
- New and Required: New York State Child Abuse: Identification and Reporting, 8th Edition. (All licensed health practitioners are required to take this new program even if you have taken the New York State Child Abuse program in the past. This is a one-time requirement to be completed by April 1, 2025, with proof to be sent by the practitioner to New York State by April 1, 2025.)
- NPs and Midwives: Prescribing Information (Req. for Form 2B) (a one-time online asynchronous program for those NPs and midwives who did not graduate from an in-state NYSED registered NP program, satisfying the required coursework on New York and Federal Laws Governing Prescriptions and Record Keeping).
| | | | | | Winter-Spring 2025 Labor Education Trainings Open for Registration NEW — Register for the Spring Member Leader Zoom Training! Registration is now open for the statewide Spring 2025 Member Leader Training series, which will take place on Zoom on Thursdays, Apr. 4, 10, 17 and 24 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Member Leader Training is a four-part training open to all members who want to deepen their leadership skills, and it covers all the basic skills needed to represent your co-workers, enforce your contracts, organize successful collective actions, plan workplace issue campaigns, and have effective meetings with management. You can take each part individually or the entire series, and each provides three contact hours and 0.3 CEUs. Register here! Please invite your co-workers to attend with you. Here is a flyer with a registration link (it includes other trainings too). NEW — Register for the Standard Trainings! Labor Education provides a variety of Zoom trainings on a range of topics. New to NYSNA? Come to the “Welcome to Your Union” training and meet other new members. Want to get more co-workers filling out Protests of Assignments or building mini-campaigns on your unit to resolve workplace issues? Come to the “Staffing Enforcement” workshop, or the brand new “Winning an Issue on Your Unit Through a Campaign of Escalating Actions” workshop. Register here and download this flyer to share with your co-workers! You can read all the workshop descriptions here. All trainings are 90 minutes on Zoom. Next trainings:
Staffing Enforcement: Collecting Protest of Assignments
Monday, Jan. 27, 2025 | 8:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m. (register) Welcome to Your Union
Monday, Feb. 3, 2025 | 9:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m. (register) New Officer and New Convention Delegate Leadership Training
Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025 | 8:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m. (register) Winning an Issue on Your Unit Through a Campaign of Escalating Actions
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025 | 8:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. (register) | | | |  | NNU National Day of Solidarity On Thursday, Jan. 16, union nurses across the country took collective action online and in the streets to demand patient care protections and healthcare justice. In New York, NYSNA is gearing up for a busy year of advocacy and organizing with over 26,000 of our members bargaining for fair contracts this year. Nationally, over 100,000 NNU members are entering contract negotiations with their employers. Digital actions combined with dozens of marches across the country helped ensure the public, health care employers, elected officials and the media listen to the voice of nurses and other healthcare workers beyond the bedside to protect patients from unregulated artificial intelligence technology and push for safe staffing standards and safe staffing levels. Read more about NNU’s Day of Solidarity here. | | | | | | RN Response Network Monitoring Massive Los Angeles-area Fires, Evacuations The Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN), a disaster relief project of NNU and the California Nurses Foundation, is currently monitoring the severe wildfires that have damaged or destroyed thousands of structures and caused multiple deaths across the greater Los Angeles area. As the network continues monitoring the situation and assessing any potential volunteer needs, RNRN asks nurses interested in being part of the California fire standby list to sign up here. | | | | | | | | | | Effective Jan. 1: Prenatal Rights Under New York State Law Recent changes to New York state employment law help working parents better navigate work and family and require hospitals to better accommodate registered nurses’ medical and family needs. Effective Jan. 1, 2025, New York has become the first state in the U.S. to require paid prenatal care leave, impacting all private employers. This comes not long after the June 2024 change that requires public and private employers to provide a minimum of a 30-minute paid break for employees to pump breast milk. Learn more about these rights in our NYSNA fact sheet and the New York State FAQs. | | | | Nurses’ Rights to Be Whistleblowers and Protest Your Assignments NYSNA members should be empowered with the knowledge of laws that have been passed with NYSNA’s input to protect them and empower them to speak up when patient safety is compromised, either due to unsafe staffing or other factors, such as a lack of personal protective equipment, as was the case throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Take a moment to learn about your rights in this flyer. | | | | NEW: Health and Safety Alert on Norovirus Norovirus is the leading cause of foodborne illness outbreaks worldwide. In the United States, it is estimated that norovirus causes approximately 20 million illnesses each year. Healthcare facilities must be prepared to handle patient surges and staffing shortages during a Norovirus outbreak. Check out NYSNA’s Health and Safety Alert on Norovirus to learn more about prevention, control, and management strategies for healthcare workers. | | | | NEW: Avian Influenza Health and Safety Guidelines Avian influenza, or bird flu, has existed for a very long time, and there have been outbreaks among poultry in the U.S. in the past. However, the current outbreak of bird flu in the U.S., which involves influenza A H5N1, has spread the most aggressively so far. It has infected at least 60 people, including one fatally in Louisiana earlier this week. While there have not yet been any reported human cases of avian influenza in New York, it is important that nurses are prepared to safely care for potential patients. Check out NYSNA’s latest Avian Influenza Health & Safety Guidelines to learn more about precautions, protocols and treatment recommendations. | | | | | | | | COVID-19 Leave Fact Sheet Nurses working in New York have several options for fully paid or partially paid leave to cover work time missed due to COVID-19 infection or COVID-19 quarantine. Check out this fact sheet updated by NYSNA’s Occupational Health and Safety team to learn more about your rights under New York state law. | | | | Long COVID Guide Read NYSNA’s Long COVID Guide to help you stay informed on the diagnosis, treatment options, benefits and rights for workers with long COVID. | | | | | | | | No-Cost Life Insurance Benefit From MetLife Are in Effect for NYSNA Members! NYSNA is pleased to announce a new member benefit that became effective on Aug. 1, 2024: Basic MetLife Life Insurance! This new coverage is at no-cost to you and provides $20,000 of Basic Life Insurance and $20,000 of Basic Personal Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) Insurance. All active members in good standing represented for collective bargaining through the union/policyholder will automatically be enrolled in the plan. This new union benefit is in addition to any other insurance provided by your benefits fund, your contract, or through your employer. Benefits include: - Basic term life insurance.
- AD&D benefits for covered losses that are the result of an accidental injury or loss of life, including line of duty death benefits.
For more information and instructions on designating a beneficiary, visit www.nysnawinstonbenefits.com or call 1-866-483-1124. Sign up with your NYSNA Member ID to set up and access your account and benefits. If you need your Member ID, please contact NYSNA Membership department at membership@nysna.org. Download and share the flyer. | | | | NYSNA Will-Writing Benefits From MetLife The NYSNA Benefits Fund gives NYSNA members who are covered by the NYSNA Benefits Fund access to personal will preparation services that MetLife Legal Plans offer — at no additional cost. Having a will prevents unnecessary stress and ensures final wishes are clear. The Benefits Fund offers valuable legal resources through MetLife Legal Plans to assist with creating or updating a will with a member’s Basic Life coverage. As part of this benefit, members get legal guidance and unlimited consultations with network attorneys. Learn more here. | | | | NYSNA Members Are Eligible for AFL-CIO’s Union Plus Benefits! The benefits of being a NYSNA member extend beyond your NYSNA benefits. As an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, NYSNA members are also eligible for Union Plus benefits to help current and retired labor union members and their families save money and support them through major milestones, celebrations and hardships. These benefits include discounts on wireless plans, credit card deals, mortgage deals, discounts on insurance plans and more! Find out more on the AFL-CIO Union Plus website. | | | | | | Free Benefits for NYSNA Members: UAP Program and SPAN Program The Union Assistance Program (UAP) is a confidential self-help program, independent from NYSNA, that is available to NYSNA members and their families as a membership benefit. When an employee or family member (18 or older) faces a significant personal problem, they can call UAP’s experienced counselors at 800-252-4555 for assistance at any time. Read more information on phone counseling services here. Learn about the benefits and resources that the UAP offers here. The January 2025 newsletter shares how to make the most out of our Member Assistance Program benefits. Read it here. Statewide Peer Assistance for Nurses (SPAN) is a confidential education, support and advocacy program for all nurses licensed in New York state who are dealing with substance abuse problems. Visit the SPAN website for more information. | | | | | | In solidarity,
Pat Kane, RN
Executive Director | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
