nurses

The need for doctors, nurses and other workers poses challenges for hospitals.

As the pandemic continues to strain the nation’s health care workforce, the National Guard has increasingly been called on to bridge the gaps.

While the stresses of the pandemic led some nurses to quit or retire, others are getting ready to step in.

Longtime nurse Lolita McComb came to work early to support her picketing coworkers. But when she clocks into her night shift at 3:00 PM, she said it is likely she will be the only nurse on a floor with 41 patients.

All of the state’s hospitals are required to have an emergency staffing plan in place to make up for shortages, and the Governor questioned whether those plans were deployed.

The governor estimates that hundreds of hospitals workers have been laid off or suspended for refusing the vaccine.

"These folks here get an ultimatum and a pink slip, and a kick in the butt and sent out the door. It’s wrong.”

“We provided them with access to resources and really talked to those individuals one-on-one to reassure them."

“I’m hoping we can manage through that and not have a tremendous number of people in any one department who are missing.”

The order allows licensed health care professionals in other states and countries, as well as retired workers and recent graduates to practice in New York.