CVPH nurses union rallies for safe staffing, limits on AI in health care
CVPH nurses union rallies for safe staffing, limits on AI in health care
Publish Date: 2026-05-22 16:22:00
Source Domain: www.northcountrypublicradio.org
May 22, 2026 —
Members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) union at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh picketed outside the hospital Thursday to push for safer staffing ratios and limits on the use of artificial intelligence in their new contract.
CVPH nurse Shawn Baker speaks at a NYSNA press conference outside Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh Thursday. Photo: Cara Chapman
The previous contract between CVPH and NYSNA—which represents almost 900 nurses, physical therapists, IT workers, and other professionals—expired in December. Since then, they’ve had more than a dozen negotiating sessions on a new one. Union officials said a big sticking point has to do with nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.
“Last year, management unilaterally raised our safe staffing ratios,” Shawn Baker, a nurse on the medical-surgical unit and chair of the hospital’s staffing committee, said at a press conference. According to Baker, CVPH increased the number of patients per nurse on her unit from four to five.
“We said no; they did not listen,” she said. “Now, we are getting ready to update the staffing plans, and NYSNA nurses are worried that the hospital administrators are gonna make our safe staffing ratios even worse, which is even less safe.”
Longtime CVPH nurse Chris Swiesz said higher ratios also hurt nurse retention. He works in the emergency department, where the ratio is sometimes eight to 10 patients per nurse.
“We spend the time and the money to train people and then they cannot take it anymore and they are gone,” he said. “You are left with a fresh group of nurses with nobody to train and mentor them.”
NYSNA members want staffing ratios enshrined in the new contract. The union’s also fighting to maintain members’ benefits.
Limits on artificial intelligence
Calls for safe staffing levels and good health insurance have been part…
