skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

'It's like an inferno.' Pacific Palisades fire explodes as thousands flee; Banks, lenders to no longer consider medical debt under new rules; CT educators celebrate passage of Social Security Fairness Act; and US Labor Department wants MD workers to claim their wages.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Vice President Harris delivers a eulogy for Jimmy Carter. President-elect Trump says he might use military action to take the Panama Canal and Greenland, and the White House announces two new national monuments in California.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The humble peanut got its '15 minutes of fame' when Jimmy Carter was President, America's rural households are becoming more racially diverse but language barriers still exist, farmers brace for another trade war, and coal miners with black lung get federal help.

Report: Many NY hospitals not staffing enough nurses

play audio
Play

Monday, January 6, 2025   

Some New York hospitals are not adequately staffing nurses, according to a new report.

The New York State Nurses Association report showed between January and October 2024, hospitals failed to staff intensive care units and critical care patients at the state-mandated ratio more than 50% of the time. The report also said most hospitals do not publicly post staffing ratios as state law requires.

Margret Franks, a registered nurse at Vassar Hospital in Poughkeepsie, said it greatly affects patient care.

"We were regularly coming into a shift where we had eight patients when we were only supposed to have five, with one nurse at six on a 36-bed unit," Franks outlined. "Eight patients means out of every hour that you're there you can only give seven and a half minutes worth of care to that patient in your shift."

She argued it is impossible to provide good patient care and do everything a nurse has to in a given shift. While one recommendation is hiring more and retaining nurses, it is not so simple. Reports have shown labor expenses at New York hospitals grew 36% since 2019. While 2024 is the second year they declined, it is still double what they were in 2019.

Other report recommendations included the Department of Health increasing transparency so people see a hospital's actual staffing levels, enforcing safe staffing levels and expanding nurse recruitment and retention.

Franks stressed the issues outlined in the report exist beyond her workplace.

"This is not a problem that's exclusive to the Hudson Valley where I work," Franks pointed out. "It's not a problem that's even exclusive to New York State, it's nationwide. The reason for this is because you have these corporations coming in, taking over health care systems, and they're all using the same playbook."

Many studies have shown the ongoing nursing shortage is only set to continue due to many factors. Chief among them is the high stress nurses face in their work. Franks feels the shortage is not about people not wanting to enter the profession. Instead, she said it is about nurses wanting better work environments.

"Each facility has to create the kind of work environment somebody would want to willingly go into and work," Franks asserted. "It's not that the nurses who are not at the bedside right now don't want to work, it's just that they don't want to work in the situations that have been created by the facilities."


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Former President Jimmy Carter had last volunteered for Habitat for Humanity at age 95, just five years before his passing on Dec. 29, 2024. (Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity)

Social Issues

play sound

As the world continues to reflect on the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter during the nation's memorial observation, his influence has …


Health and Wellness

play sound

Oregonians who are ready to leave the hospital but still require care do not have enough places to go, affecting providers and patients at all levels…

Environment

play sound

By Shi En Kim for Sierra.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Se…


In 2015, New York passed a bill implementing reforms to the Port Authority. But because it is a dual state agency, and the bill did not pass in New Jersey, it never went into effect. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

A bill reforming the New York-New Jersey Port Authority is coming back before New York's Legislature. The reforms it would implement date back to …

Environment

play sound

By Rebecca R. Randall for Yes! Magazine.Broadcast version by Trimmel Gomes for Florida News Connection reporting for the YES! Media-Public News …

Job stress and poor pay are causing a high turnover rate for counselors at crisis centers handling calls for help from suicidal individuals, according to a report from the National Alliance on Mental Health. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Thousands of calls to Texas suicide hotlines are going unanswered as funding for call centers is millions of dollars short of what advocates said they…

Social Issues

play sound

The number of Colorado families experiencing homelessness rose by 134%, from 3,600 in 2023 to more than 8,500 families in 2024, according to new …

Environment

play sound

The 640-acre Kelly parcel has been in limbo for decades. It sits within the bounds of Grand Teton National Park but has long been owned by the state …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021