Iselin, NJ—1199SEIU nursing home workers and Families for Better Care, the national non-profit citizen advocacy group, decry the Assembly leadership’s decision to let the clock run out on legislation to improve conditions in NJ’s woefully-understaffed nursing homes

At a press conference Monday morning, 1199SEIU healthcare workers expressed deep disappointment, anger, and a sense of betrayal in Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin’s decision to run out the clock on a bill to bring safe, compassionate staffing levels to nursing home residents.

The legislation has been years in the making, originally vetoed four years ago this month by Gov. Christie despite broad support from the Assembly at the time—including the entirety of the current top Assembly leadership.

The NJ Senate already passed a staffing ratio bill (S1612) in July, 2018. But on the Assembly side, the bill sat for nearly a year before being gutted just hours before its Appropriation hearing last summer. Workers and advocates had hoped that the bill would be repaired before being sent to a full vote this month, but it has now been pulled entirely, according to the Speaker’s office.

Nursing home workers are now bracing for yet more months of unacceptable staffing conditions that they say are dangerous, degrading, and humiliating for residents and pose workplace hazards for caregivers.

New Jersey ranks 45th nationally for the staffing levels of certified nursing aides (CNAs), the primary direct-care workers in nursing homes, receiving a failing “F” grade in 2019 from the non-profit citizen advocacy group Families for Better Care. The impact of short staffing on patients includes delayed meals, unchanged diapers, bed sores, fall risks, loneliness and emotional distress.

In November, the New Jersey Department of Labor released data showing that in 2018 there were 5,600 cases of occupational injuries and illnesses across New Jersey’s private, state, and county-owned nursing and residential care facilities.

“I’d like our Assembly members to walk a day in my shoes—to have to look a patient in the eye and tell them, ‘I’m sorry, I just don’t have the time to help you right now,’” said Zerica Gardner, a CNA in Ocean County. “Our staffing levels are demeaning to our patients and dangerous for everyone. We’ve been fighting for years for change, and I am so, so disappointed that our Assembly leadership has refused to stand with me, my patients, and my co-workers.”

“New Jersey has seen improvements to quality measures of nursing home care in recent years, but this progress almost certainly cannot be sustained without addressing the state’s atrocious CNA staffing record,” said Brian Lee, Executive Director of Families for Better Care. “Nursing aides are the backbone of hands-on caregiving in nursing homes, yet New Jersey facilities currently rank among the very worst in the nation in this regard. Bringing basic CNA staffing ratios to nursing homes is an important step towards preventing nursing home quality collapse.”

“I have worked in my job for 24 years,” said Margaret Boyce, a CNA in Middlesex County. “When I began working, I had 6 to 8 residents to care for each day. Today that number has more than doubled. Short staffing makes it very difficult to give our patients safe and proper care. It’s heartbreaking when you can see loneliness in a patient’s eyes, and all they want is a moment of your attention, but you’re too busy with someone else.”

“When a patient is left unattended in bed, their bodies break down,” said Dorett Jackson, a CNA in Passaic County. “I’ve witnessed patients be sent to the hospital after developing wounds from laying down for so long—it’s a disgrace that our Assembly isn’t taking action on the emergency that this is.”

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1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in New Jersey and nationwide. We represent over 16,000 healthcare families in New Jersey and over 400,000 total members throughout New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Florida, and Washington, D.C. Our mission is to achieve quality care and good jobs for all.