| | A Weekly Update for NYSNA Members | March 14, 2025 | |  | | | Victory: Northwell/South Shore Nurses Reach Tentative Agreement! After months of bargaining, speaking out and preparing to strike if necessary, NYSNA nurses at Northwell/South Shore University Hospital reached a tentative contract agreement on March 11 after bargaining through the night, averting a looming March 17 strike! The tentative agreement includes improvements to safe staffing standards — a priority for nurses — as well as respectful wage increases. South Shore nurses are also breaking new ground! This is the first nurses’ contract in New York state that specifically allows nurses to review and make recommendations prior to and during the implementation of any artificial intelligence technology that could potentially impact nurses. News12 Long Island, Newsday and Crain’s Health covered the tentative agreement. Members began voting on whether to ratify the contract on Thursday, March 13, and will end voting today. But Long Island nurses are not done yet. Nurses at Northwell/Huntington Hospital and Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital, some of NYSNA’s newest members, are also in active bargaining. Nurses from both facilities attended a Labor Education training on how to prepare for, take and keep control of meetings with management at Long Island’s interregional meeting on Wednesday, March 12. The more than 2,500 NYSNA nurses at the three Long Island hospitals are united and ready to support each other to win quality care for all Long Island patients. | | | |  | Hundreds of NYSNA Nurses Attend Lobby Day to Advocate for Nurses and Patients On Tuesday, March 11, NYSNA showed up and showed out in Albany at our 2025 Lobby Day! Over 500 NYSNA members met with more than 100 state legislators to urge them to support nurses and patients in the state budget in the face of devastating federal cuts to Medicaid and national attacks on healthcare. Nurses also called on legislators to invest in quality care for all New Yorkers and sounded the alarm on the continued staffing crisis that puts patient care at risk. President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN; Executive Director Pat Kane, RN; and board members from across the state led a rally and press conference in the Capitol. State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Chair of the Senate Health Committee Gustavo Rivera, and dozens of state legislators and our allies at 1199SEIU joined NYSNA nurses to call for a state budget that prioritizes safe staffing in every hospital and nursing home, invests in nurse recruitment and retention programs, defends quality patient care and professional standards of nursing practice, and more. Check out press coverage that day from NBC 18, Spectrum, and CBS News 8. In their discussions with elected officials, NYSNA nurses shared the most pressing threats to nursing and patient care today and offered solutions. They shared their experiences of enforcement of the safe staffing law which was enacted in 2021 and demanded greater accountability for bad actors. They highlighted Albany Medical Center, which received a deficiency report from the Department of Health with a historic 500-plus violations of the staffing law, and the hospital’s continued failure to safely staff. They spoke about strengthening the nursing pipeline, standing firmly against the closure of vital maternal and mental health services, and defending nursing practice standards. Thank you to all our members who joined us from all over New York in a powerful day of advocacy. Check out a photo album from our Lobby Day here. | | | |  | Wynn Nurses Turn Up the Heat in Negotiations NYSNA nurses at Wynn Hospital organized a day of unity to show their collective power as they entered a week of bargaining. NYSNA nurse leaders distributed over 200 red scrub tops to nurses, who wore them to bargaining in support of a fair contract. Nurses are energized about the fight for respectful wages and benefits and safe staffing! | | | |  | Oneida Nurses March on the Boss, Gear Up for Info Picket For months, Oneida Health Hospital nurses have been fighting for a fair contract with enforceable staffing standards, a plan to retain experienced nurses, and respectful wages and benefits. Historically, nurses at Oneida Health have been some of the lowest paid in the region, and nurses are fighting for a fair contract that will help them recruit and retain qualified nurses and attract more nurses from their own community. This week, they attempted to visit Oneida Health Hospital board members and ran into Oneida Mayor Rick Rossi! They spoke with him about the issues nurses are facing at their facility to earn his support in adding pressure on management to bargain a fair contract. Nurses also marched on the boss on Friday, March 7, to deliver an informational picket notice to management. Their informational picket will take place on Wednesday, March 19. Go Oneida nurses! | | | |  | NYSNA Hosts UN Commemoration of the 4th World Conference on Women On Wednesday, March 12, NYSNA had the honor of hosting an intergenerational gathering of global leaders who are attending the United Nations’ 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women and commemorating the anniversary of the 4th World Conference on Women. NYSNA Executive Director Pat Kane, RN, welcomed the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization, based out of the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, and Akina Mama wa Afrika, a feminist Pan-African leadership development organization, to the NYSNA office in Manhattan. The gathering was a celebration of transformational leadership of women across the globe and highlighted Akina Mama wa Afrika’s 40-year anniversary. | | | | Know Your Rights and Advocate for Patients When Encountering ICE Nurses’ first duty is to care for and advocate for our patients. NYSNA nurses care for all New Yorkers regardless of immigration status, income or insurance status, race, religion, ability or disability, sexuality, or gender identity or expression — simply regardless. Read our statement regarding the federal policy change on immigration enforcement in “sensitive locations,” including hospitals and schools. Learn your rights and get answers to frequently asked questions here to know what to do if you encounter ICE officers in your facility. NYSNA has also prepared this list of legal resources related to immigration. Please review and share widely. | | | |  | Join the March 15 Rally to Stop the Cuts! Join NYSNA at the Saturday, March 15, rally in New York City as we come together with labor and community allies to fight back against extreme cuts to Medicaid that threaten our patients, profession and hospitals. Congress is moving forward with devastating proposals to cut $2 trillion from Medicaid, Medicare, housing and food assistance, and other vital programs to fund a massive tax giveaway to the wealthy and corporations. The Trump administration has given unelected billionaires free rein to shut down services and force layoffs for their own ends. RSVP today to say: No cuts to working people to fund tax breaks for billionaires and corporations! And stay tuned for other ways to contact your representatives and fight back. | | | |  | Union Nurses Join “Save Our Healthcare” March in Washington, D.C. Nurses from National Nurses United (NNU) including NYSNA Director at Large Flandersia Jones, MPH, RN, joined the Mobilize to Save Our Health Care march in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, March 12. As longtime champions of healthcare as a human right, NNU nurses came out in force to defend the funding for programs like Medicaid and Medicare, which nurses know are critical to patient care across the country. NNU members see these budget cuts as direct attack on patients nationwide and are mobilizing to stop them. Check out this video of nurses at the rally speaking up with the message: Fund care, not billionaires! The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is also facing drastic cuts to budgets and staffing. These cuts will affect agencies within HHS, such as the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Take action, sign the petition to stop the cuts! | | | | Nurses for Democracy: Updated Resources to Protect Patients and Navigate Recent Federal Changes The Trump administration is rapidly making sweeping changes that affect nurses and our patients in and out of the hospital. As nurses, our first and most important responsibility is to our patients. Regardless of gender or immigration status, we are committed to providing every patient with high-quality, safe healthcare and treating them with dignity as people. That is why NNU has put together a list of resources to stay informed and fight back against the rollout of several policies attacking and endangering marginalized communities’ health, safety and lives. See our list of resources regarding these policy changes here. | | | |  | NYSNA Nurses Join Selma Bridge March Sixty years ago, civil rights leaders marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in an act of solidarity and defiance to demand the right to vote. Over the weekend, as part of the Selma Jubilee March, NYSNA leaders joined NNU nurses to retrace the steps of the civil rights leaders and commemorate "Bloody Sunday." Nurses marched to pay their respects to the civil rights heroes and reaffirm their commitment to healthcare justice and equity for our communities. | | | | Deadline Approaching: Required Completion of NYS Reporting Child Abuse Course Time is running out to make sure you have completed the required Identification and 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. Reach out to your NYSNA Rep to get the NYSNA member ID to use to create an account. 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, and 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! | | | | 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 on our website 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). The courses include new, updated, new and required and mandated courses. Learn more and register to these free classes for NYSNA NPs. | | | | | | Labor Education: Winter-Spring 2025 Trainings Open for Registration Registration for the statewide Spring 2025 Member Leader Training series is open and will take place on Zoom on Thursdays, April 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 and invite your co-workers to attend with you. Calling all Contract Action Team (CAT) members! Learn how to be a leader in a contract campaign as an engaged CAT member! Register here for the next training on Collective Bargaining Fights: What is a Contract Campaign on Wednesday, Mar. 19 at 8 p.m. Check out all of Labor Education's upcoming trainings here, and please reach out to labored@nysna.org with questions or requests for trainings in your facilities. | | | | | | | | 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 updated 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: Save the Date for Upcoming Avian Flu Webinars The current avian influenza outbreak in the U.S. has affected almost 200 million birds and almost 1,000 cattle herds. Many other species, including domestic cats, have been infected. And while the official count of human infections remains under 100, it is estimated that actual cases are far higher. While person-to-person transmission of avian influenza remains relatively rare, it is likely that a mutation that makes this type of transmission more efficient will happen at some point. NYSNA’s Occupational Health and Safety team invites you to save the date for two upcoming online workshops on Thursday, April 3, or Tuesday, April 8, to learn about the current state of avian influenza transmission, surveillance, testing, patient treatment and ways to protect healthcare professionals from infection. Check out the informational flyer, and register to attend April 3 or April 8. | | | | CDC Issues Health Advisory on Influenza Testing The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a health advisory through its Health Alert Network regarding testing and subtyping for influenza A. There is currently a high rate of seasonal influenza A (both H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes) in circulation. In addition, the current avian influenza subtype is an influenza A virus (H5N1). By recommending a shorter timeline for testing and subtyping which type of influenza A that patients are presenting, the CDC hopes to catch any human avian influenza cases as quickly as possible. Read the full advisory here. If you have questions or concerns regarding infection control at your facility, please contact the NYSNA Occupational Health and Safety Representatives at healthandsafety@nysna.org. And check out all the latest infectious disease alerts from NYSNA Health and Safety, including the updated Are Hospitals Today More or Less Prepared for Surges? health alert as well as alerts about Norovirus and Mpox. | | | | 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. | | | | | | | | NYSNA Life Insurance – It's Time to Designate Your Beneficiary NYSNA already provides members with a great benefit at no cost: Basic MetLife Life Insurance! This coverage 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 will automatically be enrolled in the plan. This union benefit is in addition to any other insurance provided by your benefits fund, your contract, or through your employer. But for your loved ones to receive this benefit, you must designate them as a beneficiary! To enroll and receive instructions on designating a beneficiary for your new Basic Personal AD&D Insurance, go to 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 the NYSNA Membership department at membership@nysna.org. Download the flyer for additional details. | | | | 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 March 2025 newsletter focuses on financial literacy and reducing money-related stress. 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, or to sign up for one of its March classes. Learn more about SPAN’s new Compassion Project here. Wellness Wednesdays: As part of its mission to promote a healthy lifestyle, SPAN is also offering a Self-Care Series that includes free Wellness Wednesday courses. Check out March’s classes focused on breathwork to learn foundational breathwork techniques to calm the mind and enhance mental clarity as well as the full calendar of Wellness Wednesday offerings here. | | | | | | | | In solidarity,
Pat Kane, RN
Executive Director | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
