New York City nurses demand hospitals do more to fill vacancies

NEW YORK -- Frontline health care workers say they are burned out and need help.

Nurses rallied on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday demanding hospitals do more to fill existing vacancies.

As CBS2's Kevin Rincon reports, registered nurses have been leaving the workforce en masse. Even those who love their careers are being forced to make tough decisions.

"When you're short-staffed every shift you go in, it's impossible. We get burned out, we get sick, we can't show up, we have to care for our families," said a New York-Presbyterian nurse named Nicole.

Nicole was diagnosed with breast cancer. Despite being a nurse, she says it was difficult to get the care needed, a result, she says, of shrinking benefits. When she finally decided on a treatment, she stayed at her hospital.

"I decided to receive treatment at NYR while I continued to work for two reasons ... The first one, I need to maintain my health insurance; the second, I wanted to support my already understaffed colleagues as much as I could," she said.

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams says two out three registered nurses across the country are planning to leave.

"What's clear to all of us is that our nurses are burning out at a rate that is unsustainable for New York City," Adams said.

"We are leaving in droves because of our working conditions," said Matt Allen, a nurse at Mount Sinai.

Allen was among the nurses who gathered on the steps of City Hall. He claims hospitals are refusing to hire, in an effort to save money.

"They have the capacity to do it, they just don't want to," Allen said.

Mount Sinai is one of several hospitals currently in contract negotiations with the New York State Nurses Association. It says the process may be noisy, but they're committed to negotiating in good faith.

Inside City Hall, the council's committee on health got to hear from both sides.

"You should not be left with the concept that we do not believe in the health care workforce. None of us exist without that," said Lorraine Ryan, senior vice president at Greater New York Hospital Association.

That hearing at City Hall was meant to understand the staffing shortages and what's being done to help with retention, especially ahead of a critical deadline; the current contract that covers nearly 17,000 nurses at 12 city hospitals will expire at the end of November.