Buffalo VA nurses join VA nurses across country to picket against 'hiring freeze'

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Nurses and medical staff of the Buffalo VA Medical Center, also a part of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United union, picketed outside the hospital Friday to call on the government for adequate staffing and better pay.

According to the National Nurses United , Nurses are calling on the VA to lift a hiring freeze that has contributed to more than tens of thousands of vacancies across the health system, including thousands of RN positions. RNs say the freeze is putting patient safety at risk and undermines the VA’s commitment to providing veterans with high-quality, integrated, veteran-specific care that only the VA has the experience and expertise to provide.

"We are demanding the VA to take care of the nurses who take care of our veterans selflessly, who kept our country safe," said Edie Nesbitt, a RN at the Buffalo VA ICU unit, and director of the local NNOC/NNU organizing committee.

"This week in NNU and NNOC and all the states are standing in solidarity to tell our government to stop the hiring freeze. NNU understands the language that the government used, that this is not a hiring freeze. That is just a talking point, there is a hiring freeze. They are seeing that they're just taking longer to fill position."

The Buffalo VA nurses are standing in solidarity with other VA workers across the county, they are calling it their national week of action.

"If our staffing methodology states one nurse can take care of five patients. Do you think when that same nurse has eight patients, they will be able to provide the same excellent care? Absolutely not, this leads to more distress of our nurses," adds Nesbitt.