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PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (AP) — Last month, New York City witnessed its largest nursing strike in decades, affecting numerous hospitals throughout the metropolis. Among those impacted was 9-year-old Logan Coyle, a patient in the pediatric cancer unit at NewYork-Presbyterian’s children’s hospital in Manhattan.
Logan has been courageously battling advanced liver cancer for two years, enduring chemotherapy and a complex triple transplant involving his liver, pancreas, and small intestine. Despite these challenges, when the nurses began their strike, Logan showed his support from his hospital window with a handmade sign reading, “Proud of My Primaries.”
Morgan Bieler, one of Logan’s dedicated primary nurses, described the moment as a powerful boost of morale during the uncertain early hours of the strike. Approximately 15,000 nurses from some of New York City’s top hospitals participated in the walkout.
“Seeing Logan’s sign was a reminder of why we were striking,” Bieler remarked. “If he can fight so bravely and persistently, then we can certainly stand up for what we believe in too.”
“In that moment, it kind of reinforced like, ‘This is why we’re doing this’,” she said recently. “If he can fight for as long as he has and as hard as he has, then we could fight this.”
But nearly a month on, more than 4,000 nurses in the NewYork-Presbyterian system are the last on the picket line in a bitter dispute over salaries, staffing, safety, health care and other contractual issues.
The hospitals have said the union’s demands were exorbitant. They say unionized nurses’ salaries already average $162,000 to $165,000 a year, not including benefits.
The nurses have countered that top hospital executives make millions of dollars a year.
Jeff Coyle, Logan’s father, says its “infuriating” that some of the city’s most vulnerable patients are caught in the middle.
“Every single day that this drags on is a severe impact to us,” he said. “We are the collateral damage of this strike.”
On Monday, the nurses’ union reached tentative deals with two other major systems, Mount Sinai and Montefiore. Those three-year proposals, if approved in membership votes this week, would see unionized nurses at those hospitals return to work by Saturday.
Negotiations at NewYork Presbyterian, though, have progressed slower. The hospital says it has agreed to a proposal from mediators that includes many things the union has sought, including pay raises, preserving nurses’ pensions, maintaining their health benefits and increasing staffing levels.
But the union says the strike remains in effect, and there were no plans for negotiations to resume as of Tuesday.
Logan and his family struggle
Coyle believes hospital administrators should have negotiated more aggressively rather than opting to hire thousands of temporary nurses to fill staffing gaps week after week.
“If we have to be there, each side to these contract negotiators should also be there, working as hard as they can to end this as quickly as they can,” Coyle said.
Spokespersons for NewYork-Presbyterian didn’t immediately comment Tuesday, but the hospital systems through the strike have said they have remained ready to negotiate when called on.
Logan, who also has a twin sister, Riley, returned home Saturday after having a tumor removed near his spine. But he said he noticed the difference between his regular nurses and the temporary replacements almost immediately.
Routine things like blood draws and lab tests took longer than normal for the replacement nurses. Gone also were the steady rounds of familiar faces dropping by, oftentimes just for a chat or to read a book.
“I like that they come in and color with you so I’m not spending my whole day on the screen in my iPad world,” he said Tuesday in the family’s home in Port Washington, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Manhattan in suburban Long Island.
“I wouldn’t want to be back there for another month without them,” Logan added. “I would feel more safer if they were all back.”
Logan’s mom, Rebecca, says she spent more sleepless nights at Logan’s bedside than previous hospital stays because staffing was so inconsistent, with temporary nurses cycling in and out every few days and bringing varying levels of experience.
“I was just constantly up, checking to make sure that something was running appropriately or waiting for a medicine to arrive or waiting for fluids to arrive or a blood product,” she said. “I felt like I had to be so vigilant.”
Logan’s nurse worries too
Bieler says she worries daily about her long-term patients still at the hospital.
She said bone marrow transplants and chemotherapy treatments have been delayed or canceled entirely for some because of the staffing challenges.
“We’re not the only pawns in this, is my point,” Bieler said. “They’re playing with children’s lives, and I can’t imagine how frustrating that is for our community.”
Spokespersons for NewYork-Presbyterian didn’t immediately comment Tuesday, but the hospital systems have insisted their operations are running smoothly, with organ transplants and other complex procedures largely uninterrupted.
As for Logan, Bieler says caring for the upbeat, endlessly positive boy changed her outlook on life.
“He’s always the best version of himself, and he faces everything with a smile,” she said. “I don’t think I would be the nurse, let alone the person I am today, without him and his family.”
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