PLATTSBURGH — Nurses at the University of Vermont Health Network – Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital are demanding safer staffing levels.
At a speak out in front of the hospital Tuesday, several members of the New York State Nurses Association and healthcare professionals at CVPH said in April, management unilaterally lowered safe staffing standards in four medical-surgical units, placing patient care at risk.
NYSNA members demanded that CVPH “listen to its frontline staff and invest in hiring and retaining more nurses for safe staffing instead of trying to lower standards to avoid accountability.”
“Us nurses are doing the work of many positions,” Jordan Sunderland, a nurse at CVPH since 2017, said.
“We are attending to every need the best we can, but it is discouraging, and the burnout is affecting us all. We have raised our concerns many times, and now we are faced with an answer that is an increase of patient ratios to nurses.”
Samantha Kalman, a nurse in CVPH’s emergency room, said the hospital’s new patient to staff ratio is 5-1 and sometimes even 6-1. She said it had been 4-1 up until a month ago.
NYSNA said when the hospital lowered safe staffing standards, they did so in violation of the state staffing law and NYSNA members’ contract, and without consulting frontline staff.
Kalman said management needs to listen to the nurses because they know what’s best for patient care.
“Far too often, patients and families remain in our ER for sometimes hours or days. We speak up and advocate as much as our role allows, but too often, I leave the hospital feeling like I didn’t have enough time to do everything I needed, or give patients the time they deserve,” she said.
“We bring our concerns to management and we aren’t heard. Changes to staffing are being made unilaterally, without thinking about what’s best for patient care. We are doing the work to make this place better for our patients, but it is hard when nothing changes and management leaves us unsupported.
“We need management to take patient care seriously and hire more nurses instead of trying to cut corners wherever possible.”
Kalman said if they get an increase in staff, there would be less wait times, better patient care and more time with a healthcare provider.
“You’re not feeling like rushing in and out. You feel like you’re valued and you matter. I feel like we are giving that (now), but we can be better, for sure.”
“They may not think that that one extra patient takes a lot from us, but it does,” Vicki Davis-Courson, a 20-year nurse at CVPH, added.
“That is more to assess, and it’s more doctors calls, and it’s more trying to get what we need for our patients. Short staffing us is not the answer. Accountability is on their part to staff the hospital, and that’s why they change the ratios, because they don’t want to take accountability.”
CVPH joined the University of Vermont Health Network in 2017 and currently serves patients in northern New York state, Vermont, and into Canada.
It is one of only seven hospitals in the North Country providing maternity care.
Davis-Courson said being a part of the network has caused many of the problems they are facing now.
“UVM seems to not understand that we are a different state. We are New York State. We have different regulations than them,” she said.
“So when they dictate to us what we can and cannot do, it may not necessarily be the best.”
In a statement Tuesday, Michelle LeBeau, president of the University of Vermont Health Network – Alice Hyde Medical Center (AHMC) and Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH) addressed the speak out and concerns of the nurses.
“As a rural community hospital, we are always evolving – adjusting to the constantly changing demands of our industry and the needs of our community,” LeBeau said.
“We respect the right of our teams represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) to share their views as we focus on delivering the care our community deserves. We look forward to working together to provide the care that continues to meet our community’s needs – now and in the future.”
NYSNA said negotiations to improve the situation are ongoing and the union plans to meet with hospital officials next Wednesday.