New York Health Workers Strike Reveals Critical Shortcomings in US Healthcare System

According to the Anadolu Agency, the difficulties in the US healthcare system were highlighted last week by a walkout of over 7,000 employees from two New York City hospitals.

A shortage of nurses, compounded by the coronavirus pandemic and hospital congestion and bottlenecks, was at the heart of last week’s disagreement between healthcare employees and employers.  

Mount Sinai and Montefiore Medical Center employees went on strike to demand that their bosses recruit more personnel to cope with ongoing issues. According to ICU nurse Michelle Gonzales of the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, Atkinson’s complaints like Thompson’s give staff “moral pain” since they leave work knowing they couldn’t offer patients the treatment “they need or deserve.”  

“When we lose folks because we can’t provide them with the therapy they require, it kills us in ways that I don’t believe anyone who isn’t a nurse or health care professional could ever appreciate,” she continued.  

Nurses have always been in short supply. Hospital walkouts are not the sole or primary source of New York’s troubles. According to a doctor working at an emergency department in Baltimore, Maryland, these issues have been in US healthcare institutions for years. A shortage of nurses is nothing new. He added that this is incredibly discouraging in New York and other cities experiencing comparable personnel and workload issues.  

According to research published in the American Journal of Medical Quality in 2017, there will be a shortage of 150,000 registered nurses by 2020. The labor shortage is a direct outcome of the pandemic’s job losses. As per the academic Health Affairs journal, 100,000 nurses will be left off between 2020 and 2021. Due to safety concerns, several nurses quit the field in 2020, during the peak of COVID-19 cases.  

Some nurses quit the field entirely, while others decided to “travel nurse” or work in various settings. Many employees relocated from one place to another for a better income. Hospitals are facing difficulties due to the labor market transition due to the unique internal processes and rules that non-permanent workers find difficult to accept.  

It takes longer since a traveling nurse is less likely to have the opportunity to learn it. As a result, “every time a new individual comes in, patient care reduces,” he explained. The retirement of many nurses who had intended to retire but delayed doing so to care for the ill during the pandemic out of a feeling of professional obligation has worsened hospital staffing challenges.

This tightens the labor market since new entrants are rare. The US Department of Health and Human Services states that half of all registered nurses are 50 or older.  

Worldwide, insufficient medical personnel has led to hospital congestion and higher wait times. Many patients have been forced to linger in congested ERs and other departments due to a significant shortage of nurses.