Nurse shortages are driving a growing emergency at New York hospitals. CarolineSpivack spoke with five Mount Sinai nurses about the day-to-day challenges of working shorthanded
Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images On the afternoon of November 22, the Long Beach Emergency Department at Mount Sinai South Nassau did something rather dire: It closed. The decision to temporarily shutter the department, which serves a city of 33,500 people, was driven by the growing emergency at hospitals across New York City and surrounding areas. There just weren’t enough nurses for it to operate safely.
Kira Downes-Vogel, labor and delivery nurse at Mount Sinai West In our contract we’re supposed to have 17 nurses per shift. But then all of a sudden, the norm is 15, and then 14. Yesterday every bed in our unit was taken, and there were 12 nurses. Sometimes we have even fewer. On nights they are lucky to have 10. When we are 12 nurses per shift, it means we don’t get breaks on our 12 1/2-hour shifts. It means patients who require the undivided attention of one nurse cannot be their only patient.
Nicole Kolvenbach, a med–surg nurse who treats COVID patients at Mount Sinai West I had six patients today. That’s hard to manage. We do go up to seven or eight, which is bursting at the seams. After surgery, when a patient comes on to the unit, one of the most important things is to get them up and walking — and to manage their pain and monitor their wounds.
The COVID patients, they’re scared and require a lot of emotional support as well as physical. So it’s important to spend that extra five to 10 minutes with them so they’re keeping realistic and focused on their plan of care. That’s also a very big strain because you have so many patients and you’re trying to make it into every room. I’ll never forget, I had one patient, she would cry to me, “I’m going to die.” She could not calm down because she thought she was going to die.
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