Stony Brook University nursing students traveled to Albany today to address New York’s serious shortage of nurses and nursing teachers.
Along with the shortage of nurses, one-third of the nurses in New York State are not currently practicing, future nurses face a two-year waiting list to enter a nursing program, and practicing nurses have no incentive to teach because the pay rate is too low.
Nursing students and faculty members spoke with legislators, including former nurse Aileen Gunther, an assembly member of the 98th district and member of the health committee.
The nursing students’ major grievances include lack of funding to pay teachers, inadequate lab equipment at the university, and professional issues like mandatory overtime. Nurses are often required to work 16 hour shifts, which can easily spill over into 20 after paperwork. Other jobs like truck driving do not allow workers to operate for longer than 12 hours, but nurses can be required to work double shifts.
While waiting in the hallway for their 11:30 appointment with Gunther, future nurses were recruited by two nursing home representatives handing out business cards.
Assistant clinical professor and Team Leader Nancy Kennedy said she believes lobbying today will prove effective. Kennedy addressed the mandatory overtime issue at Albany Day last year to Senator Foley and in June 2007, New York State Assembly passed legislation to ban it. “I was very happy for the students. I felt as though they made a difference,” said Kennedy. “Not only do I believe this will come to pass, but [the students] do not have to be burdened like I have been in the past.”
Between 1996 and 2002, the amount of registered nurses in New York State went up by 27, which means that a state of 20 million people gained about four nurses per year. The average size of a nursing class is 35 students, clearly not enough to fill the major deficit. Kennedy says that because of the nursing shortage, “good patient care is impossible.”
Many students, as well as Professor Kennedy, said they were thankful for everything the legislature has done for Stony Brook and the nursing program. Kim Johnson said she came to Albany to “represent the school of nursing” and to “say how grateful we are.”
Gunther said she believes that New York needs to “expand the program” and “open up the field” for more nurses to attend without facing a two-year waiting list. Gunther also emphasized the need for affordable, middle-income housing to keep nurses in New York State. She referred to brain drain, where people get trained at Stony Brook and then move out of state to practice nursing.
Suffolk County Community College also offers a nursing program, but that may change. If proposed legislation passes that would require a bachelor’s degree for nurses, the two-year school can no longer have a nursing program. This would put an even heavier burden on Stony Brook University, which would likely take on most of Suffolk’s prospective nursing students without the capacity to handle them.
Several students said they believe that the nursing profession in general is not given enough importance, and they feel that doctors receive preferential treatment while nurses are the ones who care for the patients all day.
“Doctors go straight to the charts after nurses have been with the patient for 8 hours,” said Michael Siderine, a Stony Brook University nursing student. Helping patients is “a team effort that starts with nurses,” said Siderine.
