A Fair Contract for Northwell Huntington Nurses Means Safe Patient Care

I have been a nurse at Huntington Hospital for over 20 years. I have seen our community hospital transform under Northwell Health, not always for the better. Chronic understaffing at our hospital stretches nurses thin, leading to burnout and high turnover, and compromises the safety of patients and nurses. While young nurses leave our facility after their first year because they don’t see a future at Huntington, our long-time, experienced nurses are retiring early because they are tired of working under unsustainable conditions. Our entire community should be concerned about the future of this hospital.

Nursing can be a dangerous job, with some of the highest rates of workplace injuries, illnesses due to exposure to infectious diseases, and workplace violence. Not enough nurses on the floor due to understaffing means lower quality of care for patients and a higher likelihood of workplace violence incidents. In fact, I’m currently on leave because I’m still recovering from serious injuries incurred when I was assaulted at work last September. The incident left me with mouth, hip, neck, back, and shoulder injuries that have required several surgeries, some of which are still awaiting approval.

This event and the painful recovery process that followed remind me how important safe staffing is for the safety of both patients and nurses. If we had been properly staffed and there had been more nurses on the floor that day, this incident may have been prevented. When nurses are out of work from these incidents, we have fewer nurses at the bedside to care for patients. Patients should be concerned about our safety and what this means for them when they come into the hospital to receive care.

Northwell/Huntington Hospital nurses have been fighting with Northwell for months to solve issues of understaffing and safety, both for patients and nurses, and secure a fair union contract with one central demand: Guarantee safe staffing for our patients. Northwell Health is the largest private employer in New York and one of the largest employers on Long Island, with dozens of millionaires on its payroll. If Northwell can pay millions of dollars in executive salaries, they can afford to hire and retain enough nurses for safe patient care. They can afford to ensure safe staffing levels to improve patient care, nurses’ safety, and Huntington Hospital’s ability to recruit and retain nurses.

Nurses are demanding a fair contract because we want to stay here and care for our community. Patients in this community deserve to be treated with the utmost care possible, and that starts with safe staffing.

Huntington Hospital nurses successfully won union recognition with NYSNA last year because we wanted the strength and backing of a union at the forefront of fighting for health and safety. We knew that a contract would guarantee us a real voice — both to protect our own health and safety on the job and to advocate for the highest standards of care for our patients. Unfortunately, Northwell has continued to stall and push back against our efforts by making insulting proposals that offer nurses even less than they receive today. It seems to be a longstanding pattern, as our colleagues at Planview and Syosset Hospital are also fighting for a fair contract with Northwell.

We are organizing to make Huntington Hospital the best place for patients to heal and for nurses to work. We’re not asking for a millionaire’s salary, we’re asking for respect, safe staffing, and for our voices to be heard. Northwell was able to reach an agreement with its nurses at South Shore University Hospital earlier this year, and it’s been critical in addressing safe staffing issues. It is time it does the same for Huntington nurses.

Patricia Dowling, RN, is a nurse at Huntington Hospital and NYSNA Labor Bargaining Unit president