WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Pictured above, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA)-represented Nurses Crystal Knibinicki (on the left) and Lona DeNisco take a moment to model a red t-shirt with the words: We Can Only Move As Fast As We Can Move, printed on the front.  The Union Care Givers, along with hundreds of other NYSNA Members employed inside the Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) in Buffalo, are capitalizing on what Union Officials call a “tone deaf” comment allegedly made to NYSNA by the hospital’s lead negotiator as the Union continues its battle to increase staffing and retain and recruit Nurses inside the safety-net hospital - which is located in one of Buffalo’s most economically-impoverished neighborhoods that also sees a great amount of trauma patients, including those suffering from gunshot wounds.  (Photos Courtesy of NYSNA)

(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) - There’s nothing like getting a very large group of overworked, stressed and angry Nurses’ dander up when it comes to the fight for increased staffing and an effort to retain and recruit Registered Nurses (RNs) than telling them: We Can Only Move As Fast As We Can Move - especially when it comes from management’s side of the fence.

But that is what the Erie County Medical Center’s (ECMC) lead negotiator allegedly told New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) Representatives, which quickly filtered down to Membership and then onto hundreds of red t-shirts that Union Care Givers are now wearing inside Buffalo’s safety net hospital - which is located in one of Buffalo’s most economically-impoverished neighborhoods that sees a great amount of trauma patients, including those suffering from gunshot wounds. 

“Nurses ‘don’t have that option,’” NYSNA Western Regional Director Steve Bailey told WNYLaborToday.com, referring to the comment made by the unidentified hospital administration’s lead negotiator. 

“We’ve ‘been slowly moving (the administration) along’ (towards solving the staffing, retention and recruitment problem), ‘but they’ve come along kicking and screaming,’” he said.

“It is ‘super frustrating’ to have a negotiator ‘tell you that when lives are on the line,’” RN and NYSNA Delegate Lona DeNisco, who works in the Emergency Room, tells Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.  “To ‘tell a Nurse that?’  ‘What do we tell a gunshot victim?’  ‘We can only move as fast as we can move?’”

Regularly, there are as many as 40 to 60 patients waiting in the Emergency Room’s hallways, says Bailey, while as many as 600 positions at ECMC remain unfilled.

“And ‘it’s not just RNs,’” said Bailey, explaining NYSNA represents 1,100 Members who are employed at ECMC.  “We’re ‘just not advocating for ourselves, but our patients.’  ‘In some places we’re operating with just two people, instead of eight.’  We ‘consider (ECMC) tone deaf’ because of this negotiator (and what he said).  ‘Money’s been spent for a big, new’ ER, ‘but its hallways are being used as rooms.’  ‘We are above capacity’ at times.  ‘You can’t keep using the Coronavirus Pandemic as an excuse for short staffing anymore.’”

RN and NYSNA Executive Crystal Knibinicki, who’s worked at ECMC for the past eight years - now in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Unit, told WNYLaborToday.com: “A lot of people ‘have left, some with fifteen years’ experience.’  ‘It’s very disheartening.’  We’re a safety net hospital in a (very poor side of the city where major trauma patients, including those involved in shootings are taken).  ‘You get into health care because you care about your patients.’  ‘If that were their (management’s) family member (coming into ECMC for treatment), they would want fair staffing.’”

Talking at length with Bailey, much of what he points out is also being said at other hospitals across Buffalo and Western New York - and for that matter, across the Nation.

No way around it, there is a nursing shortage and Nurses are burnt out after two years of battling COVID-19 in their hospitals.  And they’re tired of being described as Heroes, but not given the respect they believe they deserve in terms of increased staffing to meet their hospital’s needs and a bump in salary that not only shows they’re appreciated, but to help retain and recruit Nurses to begin to put a big dent in those 600 positions that Bailey says are still unfilled.

“We’ve ‘lost people right from the beginning’ (of the pandemic).  Some of it looks like ‘normal’ attrition, ‘but months have gone by with no new Staff and it’s not just’ RNs,” Bailey said.  “There are ‘no’ housekeepers.  ‘We (Nurses) are emptying garbage ourselves because who’s going to do it?’”

Nurse Knibinicki said: “I am ‘so upset’ and (NYSNA) Members’ are upset.’  (Nurses) ‘took on a lot’ when COVID started.  They (traveling Nurses ECMC has brought in and the young Nurses they’ve have hired) ‘have a significant deficit of health care knowledge.’  ‘So there’s a lot of apprehension.’  ‘We’re trying to get (Nurses) more money and benefits so our Nurses will stay, so we can help create better stability for them - so that (ECMC) is not run by travel Nurses.’  It’s ‘very disheartening because you get into health care because you care for your patients.’  When we ‘complain (to the administration), we get laughed at.’  ‘It doesn’t make sense to me’ (why ECMC’s existing Staff of Nurses are being treated this way).  ‘We’re so much part of ECMC and now it seems like they don’t give a f*** about us.’  ‘This must be fixed.’”

Nurse DeNisco added: “I ‘really hate’ that (hospital administration) ‘continues to focus on COVID (for the understaffing problem), especially when you have six to twelve Nurses working a shift in the ER where, minimally, there should be (24 on a shift).’  We ‘love’ our jobs, ‘but people are leaving with their moral fabric torn.’  ‘It’s very damaging.’  ‘And it’s super-frustrating when a negotiator tells you something like that.’  ‘It’s not acceptable.’  ‘It shows how removed you can be’ (from what’s going on).  There ‘have also been violent assaults’ (on Nurses, including some by family members of gunshot victims).  ‘We’re bleeding out Nurses, but we’re fighting to get more in place’.  ‘And we’re fighting for the safety of our patients.’  ‘I’d tell (the administration) to see what NYSNA Nurses face.’  ‘That they need to be involved.’  ‘There are tons of elements in this.’”

However, NYSNA Reps are working with ECMC to smooth the recruiting process, they tell WNYLaborToday.com. 

“We’re ‘slowly helping them along, but our Nurses don’t have that option.’  ‘At the end of the day, we got them to agree’ to attendance bonuses.  ‘That’s good, but it doesn’t make up for retention and recruitment.’  ‘Our Nurses’ energy isn’t endless.’  They’re saying they ‘just can’t do this anymore’ and that they ‘don’t want to be miserable,’” Bailey said.