A recent study by Joyce University of Nursing and Health Sciences<\/a> found that 74% of nurses report feeling emotionally exhausted at least once a week. <\/p>\nMore than half say they regularly skip meals and breaks because of workload demands, while nearly half struggle to sleep most nights due to work-related stress.<\/p>\n
The study also found that 74% of nurses were required to work overtime three or more times in the past month, while an alarming 53% of registered nurses say they are seriously considering leaving the profession altogether.<\/p>\n
Morgan said she and her colleagues of all ages are already experiencing this reality. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disheartening that they come in, wide-eyed, bushy-tailed, expecting to be able to give the type of care that they learned in their clinicals,\u201d Morgan said about her younger counterparts, \u201cto stay for a year and then leave because of the unsafe situations. We need these hospitals to hear not only our veteran nurses, but our younger nurses.\u201d <\/p>\n
In New York City, those pressures have reached a breaking point. As hospital leadership remains focused on margins, operational efficiencies, and executive compensation, nurses like Morgan say they continue to work under conditions that compromise both patient care and their own safety. <\/p>\n
Nonprofit tax filings compiled by ProPublica show that Dr. Steven J. Corwin, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian, reported compensation totaling approximately $23.3 million during the most recent fiscal year available.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are more than 15,000 nurses on strike saying the same thing,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cWe all can\u2019t be wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n
For Morgan and other nurses, the struggle continues. <\/p>\n
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 09: Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press conference as nurses from Mount Sinai Hospital strike outside the hospital on January 09, 2023 in the Upper East Side neighborhood of New York City. Thousands of nurses from Mount Sinai\u2019s main hospital and at three locations of the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx went on strike at 6 A.M. after failing to reach a contract agreement on Sunday. While on strike, the nurses are negotiating for higher pay and increased staffing as they attempt to reach an agreement on a contract. NYSNA members reached a contract agreement with several other hospitals across the five boroughs in recent days that avoided similar strikes. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only are there not enough nurses to care for patients in a timely manner, but just weeks ago, this same hospital laid off nurses, stretching us even thinner,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cAnd it couldn\u2019t come at a worse time. We are knee-deep in a flu outbreak\u2014the worst the city has seen. Infants, children, and adults are coming into these hospitals critically ill, and we have fewer nurses and nurse practitioners available to care for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more than two decades, U.S. News & World Report has placed NewYork-Presbyterian among the nation\u2019s best hospitals. Its children\u2019s hospital ranked among the top in the country and #1 in New York State. <\/p>\n
However, when it comes to working conditions for registered nurses, the New York State Nurses Association argues the hospital has fallen short\u2014a concern echoed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.<\/p>\n
\u201cNurses put their lives on the line every day to keep New Yorkers healthy. They should never be forced to choose between their own safety, their patients\u2019 well-being, and a fair contract,\u201d James said in a statement. \u201cAs our state faces a historic flu surge, our communities are counting on New York\u2019s hospitals for high-quality, reliable frontline care.\u201d <\/p>\n
James went on to criticize leadership. <\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, hospital management is threatening nurses\u2019 health benefits, rolling back hard-won staffing protections, and doing too little to address workplace violence,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
It is a workplace Morgan describes as both deeply rewarding and increasingly untenable. She takes pride in the lives she and her colleagues save and the families they support, but says chronic mismanagement and a persistent shortage of available beds have made providing care far more difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn health care right now, many of our patients aren\u2019t staying in the emergency room for hours\u2014they\u2019re staying for days,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cThey\u2019re waiting because our ICU beds are full, our operating rooms are backed up, and mental health facilities have no available space. There\u2019s simply nowhere for them to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Compounding that strain, pediatric emergency departments have increasingly become the front line of a health care system under pressure. Rising insurance costs have left many families without coverage, while the absence of paid family leave has forced working parents to delay seeking care for their children.<\/p>\n
Morgan said this often brings about serious consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lot of the families we serve, especially working mothers and single mothers who can\u2019t afford to miss work, they\u2019ll wait a day, two days, even three days before coming in,\u201d Morgan explained. \u201cBy the time they arrive, sometimes we only have enough time to scoop that child up and rush them to the trauma room.\u201d <\/p>\n
With registered nurses often bearing the brunt of federal policy gaps, Morgan and her colleagues in the pediatric emergency department have become the first stop for far too many families\u2014particularly those without access to a primary care physician. <\/p>\n
For Morgan, helping these families, many of whom can’t afford to take time off work for a routine visit, is a burden she feels personally. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf that were my child, I\u2019d want everyone in the hospital to stop what they\u2019re doing to keep them alive,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cThat\u2019s the level of care we try to bring every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The United States remains one of the few developed nations without a federal paid family leave program\u2014a reality that has pushed working mothers, including some of Morgan\u2019s patients, to take their advocacy to Capitol Hill. <\/p>\n
Rep. Ayanna Pressley with Bobbie for Change advocates, Michele Lampach, Iskra Lawrence and Dawn Huckelbridge<\/p>\n
Lelanie Foster<\/p>\n
Public figures such as Iskra Lawrence, Whitney Port, Hannah Bronfman, Meena Harris, Sophia Li, Jaycina Almond, Anna Malaika Tubbs, Lelanie Foster, and Dr. Max Goldstein, have joined in this advocacy effort. <\/p>\n
During the Capitol Hill meetings, parents also heard from Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.).<\/p>\n
\u201cRegrettably, the suffering of women in America has become so unremarkable to our society that it\u2019s become systemic, cultural, and normalized,\u201d Pressley said. \u201cAnd to those who believe that care and paid leave can wait, I would simply ask\u2014who raised you?\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a question that nurses, many of whom are women, are asking on the picket lines in New York City. <\/p>\n
While they have drawn support from James, newly sworn-in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), some of the Democratic Party\u2019s most prominent and influential leaders have remained conspicuously silent.<\/p>\n
For nurses on strike, that silence raises a pointed question: whether party leaders will stand with registered nurses calling for safer staffing and patient care\u2014or with hospital executives and multimillion-dollar management teams defending the status quo.<\/p>\n
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 12: Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a press conference as nurses from New York-Presbyterian\/Columbia University Irving Medical Center strike outside the hospital on January 12, 2026 in New York City. Nearly 15,000 nurses from New York-Presbyterian\/Columbia, Montefiore Medical Center and the main campus of Mount Sinai Hospital, NYC’s biggest hospitals, have gone on strike. The union representing the nurses says they are demanding higher wages, more security at hospitals to reduce violent episodes and shootings, and a commitment to ensuring minimum staffing ratios. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
For Morgan and her colleagues, those questions underscore a central point: the strike is not about wages, but about safety and the basic resources needed to protect patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the ones at the bedside\u2014staying late, holding patients\u2019 hands, calming their fears, and saving lives,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cThis has never been about money. It\u2019s about providing the best possible care for our patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eager to return to demanding, but deeply rewarding shifts, Morgan said she would much rather be back in the emergency department than on the picket line. <\/p>\n
But she argues hospital management has left nurses with little alternative.<\/p>\n
Since the strike began, NewYork-Presbyterian has relied heavily on travel nurses to maintain operations. According to Bloomberg<\/a>, some of those out-of-state nurses are being paid as much as $9,000 per week, not including housing and travel costs\u2014far exceeding the cost of retaining unionized staff nurses. <\/p>\nThe disparity has become a central point of contention for the union and for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has questioned why hospitals are willing to pay premium rates for temporary staffing rather than invest in long-term patient safety and workforce stability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – JANUARY 12: Nearly 15,000 nurses, who are the members of New York State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[48847,48849,9,11,10,48843,22943,48844,48851,48845,48850,48846,48848],"class_list":["post-108545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-healthcare-worker-burnout","tag-hospital-executive-compensation","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-nurses-strike","tag-newyork-presbyterian-hospital","tag-nurse-staffing-shortages","tag-paid-family-leave-policy","tag-patient-safety-in-hospitals","tag-pediatric-emergency-care","tag-richard-fowler","tag-travel-nurses-cost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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