Confronting the COVID-19 Surge Despite reassurances from state and local leaders, and the outpouring of support from New Yorkers everywhere, conditions on the frontlines continued to deteriorate and NYSNA members stepped up their calls to action. On March 28 nurses at Jacobi Medical Center, part of New York City Health + Hospitals, held a speak out about PPE shortages so severe that healthcare workers were forced to wear the same N95 respirator for five days. They also shared their shock and grief over the loss of colleague Freda Ocran, who passed away from COVID-19 earlier that morning.
Taking Action On April 2, NYSNA members at Montefiore Medical Center held a speak out, warning the public that the hospital was leaving nurses and other healthcare professionals unprotected, calling for better PPE, COVID testing for healthcare workers, and for hospitals to allow workers on the frontlines to utilize the same two weeks of paid sick leave available to every other New Yorker. That same day, NYSNA members in Western New York helped kick-off a unionwide campaign calling on the federal government to invoke the Defense Production Act and get critical
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2020 a year like no other
Above: Members at HealthAlliance Hudson Valley speak out for safety. Below: New Yorkers salute healthcare workers.
supplies to the frontlines. “Why is it that during wartime, our country can mobilize, essentially overnight, to mass produce weapons, ammunition, guns, bullets?” asked Rachel Larkin, a nurse and NYSNA member from Erie County
Medical Center. “But during a time when we need to step up and protect our own citizens, we have waited months to even begin to mobilize to produce adequate PPE and ventilators and testing kit supplies?”
