Safe Staffing
Understaffing is driving our healthcare system to the brink of collapse. That is why HPAE, New Jersey’s largest union of healthcare workers, is pushing the state legislature to pass a law in Trenton mandating enforceable staffing ratios.
The problem is clear – frontline healthcare workers continue to migrate out of bedside nursing at an alarming rate because of untenable working conditions. Driven in large part by working shorthanded, this unsafe work environment has led to tremendous burnout in the profession as many more leave healthcare due to stress. And when healthcare workers suffer – the unavoidable result is patient care suffers.
Too often nurses in NJ are working short-staffed, a problem that has existed for decades, but has now hit a point where our entire healthcare system is in a state of crisis. In study after study, short staffing has been shown to compromise patient care and safety, as well as nurse safety. Every healthcare worker and every patient are feeling the pain of short staffing, while healthcare executives continue to profit.
Read HPAE’s latest position papers:
News
More nurses at the bedside: NJ unions bargain for better staff ratios
Within the last few weeks, New Jersey’s largest nurses' union has settled contracts at three hospitals that included language to secure lower staffing ratios...
HPAE Local 5030 Members Ratify Contract with HMH to Institute First Staffing Ratios in Hospital’s History
HPAE Local 5030 members have overwhelmingly ratified a historic contract with Hackensack Meridian Health, the owner of Palisades Medical Center, that establishes patient-to-staff ratios for the first time in the hospital’s history. HPAE President Debbie White, RN, congratulated HPAE Local
What New Nurses Contracts Mean for Patient Care in New Jersey
New Jersey's largest nurses union has been negotiating new contracts with staffing levels they say will improve patient safety and quality of life for nurses.
Palisades Medical nurses settle with Hackensack Meridian, averting strike over staff ratio
Two weeks after threatening to walk off the job, the union representing 800 nurses at Palisades Medical Center has agreed to a contract with hospital owner Hackensack Meridian, union leaders and hospital executives announced Saturday.
HPAE Local 5030 Reaches Historic Tentative Agreement with Hackensack Meridian Health
One week after the contract expired, HPAE Local 5030 reached a tentative agreement after four long and difficult months of bargaining with Hackensack Meridian Health.
Cooper, Englewood Nurses ratify enforceable safe staffing ratios, and economic gains
An overwhelming number of HPAE nurses at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center and Cooper University Health Care have ratified new contracts with enforceable staffing ratios and substantial wage increases.
HPAE workers walk away from table with HMH
HPAE healthcare workers walk away from the Negotiations Table with Hackensack Meridian Health to discuss Strike plans with their membership.
Nurses threaten to strike at 3 NJ hospitals. Here’s why
About 3,000 nurses have voted to authorize a strike at three New Jersey hospitals ... as they battle for mandatory staffing ratios to be placed in their contracts, union officials announced Tuesday.
HPAE announces overwhelming strike-vote approvals at three large New Jersey Hospitals
Leaders of HPAE locals negotiating contract renewals at three large New Jersey hospital systems say members have authorized them to go out on strike if they are unable to win enforceable safe staffing ratios in their new contracts.
New Legislation in NJ Could Curb Nurse Retention Rates (video)
Steve Adubato is joined by Debbie White, RN, President of Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), to discuss the alarming rate of nurses leaving the industry and the ways safe staffing legislation in New Jersey can assist in retention.
Nurses and Supporters at Town Hall say New Jersey Needs Safe Staffing Ratios in Union Contracts and in a NJ Law
Unionized healthcare workers, legislators and advocates addressed the need to negotiate safe staffing in union contracts and pass the “Patient Protection and Safe Staffing Act,” (S.2700/A.3683) into a law mandating safe patient-to-staff ratios in New Jersey hospitals. HPAE President Debbie
HPAE commends the Hudson County Board of Commissioners for approving a resolution calling for a law to mandate Safe Staffing ratios in NJ Hospitals
Members of HPAE applauded the Hudson County Board of Commissioners as they unanimously approved a resolution today supporting establishing safe staffing standards in collective bargaining agreements...
Rally for Safe Staffing Photo Gallery
Trenton Legislators heard Our Voices, as we called on them to pass an effective, enforceable staffing ratio bill to keep patients safe, keep us safe, and stop the bleed of nurses leaving the profession at alarming rates. It was a
How understaffed are NJ hospitals? Nurses say they are stretched thin — and care suffers
Nurses say New Jersey hospitals continue to be critically understaffed and therefore less safe, with far fewer medical professionals to attend to patients.
NJ nurses rally for more staff, lighter workloads (video)
Hundreds of nurses rallied at the State House in Trenton, chanting, “Safe staffing saves lives!” ...claiming they’re overworked, understaffed and out of patience with New Jersey healthcare systems that don’t schedule enough nurses per shift.
Unionized Nurses, Healthcare Advocates & Activists to Rally for Safe Staffing at NJ Hospitals
On Thursday, May 11th, unionized nurses and other healthcare workers will rally outside the State House in Trenton to push legislators to pass NJ-S304/A4536 (Vitale/Jimenez).
How bad is N.J.’s nursing shortage? It has 13,000 openings and counting
New Jersey ranks among the 10 states with the most unfilled registered nurse positions with 13,404, according to Adzuna, a job listing site
Nurses Leaflet at Hospitals Across New Jersey, Build Momentum for May 11 Trenton Safe Staffing Rally
HPAE Nurses Leaflet at Hospitals Across New Jersey, Building Momentum to Next Month’s Rally in Trenton for Safe Staffing Frontline healthcare workers will gather at NJ State Capitol on Thursday, May 11, 2023 to urge lawmakers to mandate enforceable staffing
Safe Staffing Newsletter #2
It's time our voices are heard. Join us at the Safe Staffing Rally on May 11 where will tell lawmakers we have had enough. We are standing together—workers, patients, community members and advocates.
Safe Staffing Newsletter #1
Healthcare workers, patients and community activists will Rally in Trenton on May 11 to tell legislators to pass a law mandating enforceable safe staffing levels in New Jersey hospitals.
Nurses and Healthcare Workers Launch Fight Against Staffing Crisis in New Jersey
New Jersey’s overworked, overburdened workforce call on lawmakers to pass safe staffing bill.
Our health care system is a gathering catastrophe | Opinion
The problem is clear. Frontline health care workers continue to migrate out of bedside nursing at an alarming rate because of untenable working conditions.
NJ HPAE Eyeing NYSNA Staffing Patient Ratio Pact
A contract deal between New York City private hospitals and the New York State Nurses Association which provides for enforceable patient nurse staffing ratios is being hailed by New Jersey’s largest union of healthcare workers as an essential benchmark.
HPAE’s statement of solidarity with NYC nurses who are on strike
HPAE, New Jersey's largest union of healthcare workers, stands in solidarity with our New York nursing colleagues as they fight to improve working conditions, salaries and staffing policies at their hospitals.
Labor peace? Jersey Shore hospital nurses ratify contract with pay hikes, more staff
Nurses at Jersey Shore University Medical Center ratified a three-year contract that is expected to increase wages, keep veteran nurses on board and enhance security at the hospital, union officials said Sunday.
‘Chilling’ findings in survey of NJ nurses (video)
They were hailed as heroes during the pandemic and helped bring the state through the public health crisis. Now a new survey shows many nurses in New Jersey have considered leaving the job and say a statewide staffing shortage is
Jersey Shore union survey finds nurses lack trust in Hackensack Meridian management (News 12 broadcast)
A Jersey Shore union survey shows that nurses at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center lack trust in their management.
Nurses at this N.J. hospital say they wouldn’t feel safe being treated at their own facility
More than half the union nurses at a New Jersey hospital wouldn’t feel safe being treated at their own facility. An overwhelming majority said the hospital is not a good place to work.
The exodus: COVID traumatized a generation of N.J. nurses. Many are in crisis and leaving the field.
Nurses across New Jersey were walloped when the pandemic arrived, swept up in a vortex of death and trauma and grief. Witnessing death is part of the job.
Stressed NJ nurses, heroes amid pandemic, get mixed results in contract talks. Here’s why
New Jersey’s nurses, lauded as heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic, have faced mixed results in labor negotiations with some of the state’s health systems this month. Unionized nurses have signed a new three-year contract with the state’s largest public hospital,
Frontline health workers face increased violence, harassment — mostly from patients
Hailed as heroes two years ago, frontline health care workers in New Jersey are now facing growing levels of verbal threats, harassment and workplace violence — most of it from patients under their care.
Program brings mental health care to NJ essential workers (video)
Ana Delgado, a registered nurse at Rutgers University, knows all about the emotional and mental strain of COVID-19.
Some N.J. health workers weigh quitting over new vaccine mandate. Will it escalate the staffing crisis?
New Jersey hospital systems and health care unions say the vast majority of their employees are vaccinated due to largely pro-vaccine attitudes and a number of previous government and corporate mandates.
Right now, nursing is broken
When I can get out and run my errands, I see people who aren’t taking precautions to protect themselves, and it’s frustrating because, inside the hospitals, health professionals are in crisis mode.
Military medical team headed to N.J. hospital struggling with omicron, staff shortages
New Jersey’s only public acute-care hospital is among six around the country slated to receive a military medical team to help address a surge in COVID-19 patients and staff shortages.
Health care workers are panicked as desperate hospitals ask infected staff to return
Hospitals and long-term care facilities are so short staffed that many are compelling Covid-positive doctors and nurses to return to work, arguing that bringing back asymptomatic or even symptomatic staff is the only way they can keep ...
Healthcare Workers Feel the Lash of Letting COVID
Donald Trump may have lost the election, but his laissez-faire worldview that believes commerce takes precedence over protecting workers’ health in the midst of a global pandemic has carried the day.
Health care workers struggle amid staffing shortage, COVID-19 surge and burnout
Hospitals are struggling to keep up staffing levels amid recent spikes in COVID-19-related hospitalizations and an exodus of nurses and other health care workers.
Weary nurses urge return to public-health mandates as omicron peaks
Hospitals in New Jersey have been struggling with staffing shortages for weeks. Patient numbers have grown quickly and the omicron variant has infected record numbers of workers, thinning their ranks at the bedside and behind the scenes.
Health care workers: We’re traumatized and feel abandoned
Once again, health care workers are feeling abandoned by the very people who should be supportive of them.
For NJ hospitals during historic COVID spike, worry is not over PPE or beds, but staff
As the omicron variant of COVID-19 drives a steep increase in hospital admissions in New Jersey, the biggest worry for health care leaders in this wave of the pandemic is not personal protective equipment, intensive care space or ventilators.
Temp agencies “poach” nurses, worsen hospital staff shortages (video)
More fallout from The Great Resignation: New Jersey hospitals are fighting over new staffers — while struggling to pay temps hired at extremely high salaries from agencies. One healthcare union head reports an “exodus” of nurses and other workers seeking
Will N.J. hospitals face a nursing shortage under vaccine mandates? They already are.
The dearth of workers is an urgent threat in an industry that was already wrestling with staffing shortages, a tight labor market, and pandemic-related burnout and trauma.
Philly-area hospitals are paying nurses big bonuses to stave off shortage
From -The Philadelphia Inquirer, written by Harold Brubaker Thousands of relatively inexperienced nurses have received raises from area health systems in a bid to prevent them from leaving for lucrative sign-on bonuses at other hospitals. Times are good for nurses
Frontline burnout: NJ’s health care workers grapple with post-pandemic stress
The state’s hospitals and health care workers up and down the line have been coming to grips with a post-pandemic world and the new problems it presents.
As COVID-19 continues, so do troubles for nurses
For years, nurses in New Jersey have raised concerns about workforce shortages and staffing levels they believe put patients and employees in danger.
Frontline Health Care Workers Aren’t Feeling the ‘Summer of Joy’: Doctors and nurses are reeling from new Covid cases, staff burnout and the prolonged stress of dealing with the pandemic
A largely unmasked nation will celebrate the nation’s return to near-normalcy this weekend with a ticker-tape parade in New York City, a dazzling fireworks display over the Washington Monument and countless Independence Day gatherings in cities and towns across the
How the powerful NJ hospital interests beat back stronger health laws during COVID
Long before sick and dying COVID-19 patients inundated New Jersey’s hospitals, it was common for nurses in certain units — such as emergency departments — to miss breaks or even skip using the bathroom on their 12-hour shifts.
N.J.’s largest nurses union filed 24 worker safety complaints during pandemic
The state’s largest nurse and health care worker union filed 24 complaints over employee safety violations during the pandemic, and will seek a larger role through contract negotiations in determining how hospitals...
Doing their job should not have cost them their lives
Healthcare workers have endured physical and emotional trauma, during the past year and yet the pandemic continues to take a toll.
NJ doesn’t know how many health care workers died of COVID. Why that number is crucial
Thousands of fading lawn signs honor the sacrifices of our “health care heroes,” but no one knows how many made the ultimate sacrifice. Not the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Not New Jersey’s Department of Health.
After lobbyists step in, a health workers’ COVID transparency bill is gutted. How it changed
Hospital lobbyists met with the bill’s primary sponsor and legislative aides several times last year pushing for changes to the bill that would have required daily reporting on the Department of Health’s website of COVID’s impact on health care workers..
‘It decimated our staff’: Covid ravages Black and brown health workers in US
Covid-19 has taken an outsized toll on Black and Hispanic Americans – and those disparities extend to medical workers
Union wants New Jersey hospitals to report employee COVID-19 infections
As the number of COVID-19 cases surge in the Garden State, front line medical workers are also getting sick. And now, a health care workers union is calling on the state to track hospital outbreaks (video).
Murphy indicates he could make info on COVID outbreaks among hospital staff public
The Murphy administration may step in to force hospitals to report COVID-19 outbreaks among staff as legislation requiring the public disclosure remains stalled in the state capital.
No one knows how many N.J. medical workers have COVID-19. That needs to change, nurses union says.
Health Professionals and Allied Employees, the union that represents 14,000 nurses in New Jersey, called on the state Monday to change that and require hospitals to track sick workers.
Should NJ hospitals be required to tell public about staff COVID-19 outbreaks?
The scope of staff sickness, absence and deaths at New Jersey hospitals due to COVID-19 remains unknown nine months into the pandemic, despite concerns that a reduced workforce may hamper the hospitals’ ability to absorb a rising wave of sick patients.
NJ Hospitals Dealing With COVID-19 Outbreaks Among Staff
As many as 40 employees at Palisades Medical Center have gotten sick from COVID-19 and more than 100 employees at Ocean Medical Center have also tested positive. NBC New York’s Gilma Avalos reports (video)
COVID-19 outbreak at Palisades Medical Center prompts ER diversions, patient transfers
About 30 to 40 employees at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen have tested positive for COVID-19, forcing the hospital to transfer some patients and divert ambulances to other emergency rooms, according to a union official and a hospital executive.
New Jersey 7-day COVID average highest since outbreak began (video)
"It feels as if we are on a railroad track watching a speeding train hurtling toward us, knowing it will eventually hit us," said HPAE President Debbie White, RN. "What is quickly becoming clear to us is that this surge
As COVID-19 surges in N.J., frontline workers are calling it quits: ‘I don’t want to gamble with my life.’
Michele Burlington survived the first wave of the coronavirus on the front lines, working in a hospital’s packed COVID-19 unit. But she wasn’t going to risk the second wave. Even if it meant giving up her career of 42 years.
‘How do you ever truly recover from seeing so much death?’ Anguished nurses face the pandemic’s second wave
The state reported 3,207 new cases Saturday — the highest number of daily positive tests since April 27, around the peak of the initial outbreak — and 1,392 hospitalizations, the most since June 11.
Second Covid-19 wave could turn cracks in the hospital system into ‘earthquakes’
There were 300 patients being treated for Covid-19, filling hospital rooms and spilling out into the halls of the emergency room. The trauma center, once used for gunshot wounds and car crash victims, was now filled with people on ventilators.
HPAE releases “Exposed & At-Risk,” a report on how COVID-19 pandemic affected New Jersey healthcare workers
by Insidernj.com In a new HPAE report released today, union members offer real-time first-hand accounts of caring for patients on the COVID-19 pandemic frontlines while battling employers for personal protective equipment (PPE) and other resources to do their life-saving work. HPAE
‘We feel disposable’: NJ nurses’ union cites lack of protection during coronavirus pandemic
Lack of proper protective masks and face shields, inadequate training in their use and lax government enforcement of safety requirements caused hundreds of front-line health workers in New Jersey to fall sick with coronavirus infection as the pandemic slammed health care facilities in recent months, the state’s largest health care union said Monday.
NJ nurses union decries hospital, state response to pandemic as unprepared
Lawmakers are hoping to boost oversight and coordination between hospitals and state health officials amid a lull for New Jersey in the COVID-19 pandemic, as a Monday report from the state’s nurses’ union flags what it says was a total
‘I’ve never seen anything so catastrophic.‘ N.J. medical workers confront the trauma coronavirus inflicted.
Many medical workers are just beginning to experience the fallout, overwhelmed by burnout, anxiety and despair. The symptoms are emerging as they reconcile the emotions they compartmentalized while watching scores of patients die and colleagues fall ill.
Fed-up health care workers allege N.J. hospital is putting their lives at risk
Health care workers at a New Jersey hospital fear for their safety, alleging the facility has failed to protect them from infection while treating COVID-19 patients.
A prison nurse died, and her union says N.J. fails to protect staff from coronavirus behind bars
Nurses in New Jersey prisons are working in “horrific conditions” that pose an “imminent hazard" to their health amid the coronavirus pandemic...
Open up the state now? N.J. nurses are ‘horrified’ by the idea.
There is a cry going out across the nation to end the lockdown. We see armed protests in some states to “end the quarantine and open the country.”
Hospital and nursing home put employees at risk, including one who died from the coronavirus, union says
A healthcare employee union filed a complaint Tuesday against a North Jersey hospital and nursing home for failing to provide equipment and follow safety requirements that could protect workers from getting the coronavirus, including one man who died last month.
Frontline health care workers stressed by job and employer demands (video)
Former critical care nurse Debbie White now heads a health care workers union with 14,000 members across New Jersey.
Nurses and Doctors Speaking Out on Safety Now Risk Their Job
“Mr. Witt is not allowed on property at JSUMC,” the writing said, beneath a picture of him looking tired and pained. “If he is seen on property please contact your supervisor immediately.”
Nurses during coronavirus pandemic face an uphill battle. They always have
It's been said and said, but still not said enough: God bless the nurses. God bless the doctors, technicians, orderlies and ambulance drivers, too. But nurses above all.
WATCH: Jersey Shore hospital staff brought to tears as first-responders offer special thanks
First-responders from communities near Jersey Shore University Medical Center had a special surprise for staff during Monday night’s shift change amid the coronavirus outbreak.
HPAE Nurses Speak Out for Safe Staffing
HPAE nurses are speaking out and taking action to keep patients safe and support legislation to make sure every hospital has enough nurses for every patient.
Safe Staffing Bill Introduced in Congress
As HPAE continues the fight for safe staffing legislation in New Jersey, a bill which sets national standards for nurse staffing levels has been introduced in Congress. Last week, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced the Nurse Staffing Standards
HPAE Celebrates National Nurses Week: May 6 – 12
Taking Action to Protect Health Care and Patient Safety HPAE nurses and health professionals play an important role in improving the delivery of healthcare services and advocating for patient, worker safety. During Nurses Week, we celebrate all that nurses and
Keep Our Hospitals Safe
Nurses and health professionals joined together to Keep Hospitals Safe on Monday, February 27, at the Trenton Statehouse and demand Trenton fully fund hospital inspections and pass patient safety, worker protection laws. Click here to learn how Trenton can Keep Our
Nurses, Health Professionals urge Trenton Lawmakers to Keep Hospitals Safe
Nurses, health professionals, and patients traveled to Trenton on Monday, February 27th to urge Governor Christie and lawmakers to fully fund hospital inspections and to pass legislation that ensures patient safety and worker rights’ enforcement.
Nurses and Doctors Are Fighting Back Against Corporate Healthcare by Unionizing
Health-care issues got scant attention at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, but outside the hall, a wave of labor victories at area hospitals showed the business of medicine is getting an injection of union action.
Inspira Nurses Vote to Take Action for Patient Safety, Safe Staffing
Nurses from Inspira Health Network voted on May 19th to hold informational picketing at Inspira hospitals on a date to be determined. All 1,300 Inspira nurses represented by the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) have been bargaining with Inspira
Members Meet with Cumberland County Freedholders
Inspira RNs from Vineland had a meeting with the Cumberland County Freeholders to brief them on issues that will be presented at the upcoming negotiations and how they may impact the citizens of Cumberland County. Local 5131 RNs
Staffing Forum Addresses Key Issues
Our local held a Staffing Forum held on February 17. The forum was an interactive meeting in which updates were given on the arbitration award regarding contract section 4.11 positions, the hospital’s acuity system, and staffing legislation in New Jersey.
Thats all, folks - no more news!
Resources
- Code Red Position Paper I: Understaffed. Overworked. Unsafe for everyone.
- Code Red Position Paper II: Voices from direct patient care staff calling for mandated staffing ratios in New Jersey’s hospitals
- 2022 Change Research Survey of Current and Recent Nurses in Hospitals
- Read the Safe Staffing Facts
- Share your experiences with our current healthcare staffing crisis
- Summary of Nurse Staffing Studies
- Nurse to Patient Staffing Ratio Bill Currently in the NJ State Senate
- Nurse to Patient Staffing Ratio Bill Currently in the NJ State Assembly
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