WASHINGTON (Jan. 13, 2026)-Nearly 15,000 nurses walked off the job on Monday at major hospital systems in New York City. The striking nurses are demanding better pay and benefits, protection against understaffing, workplace safety and other issues.
The Union, the New York State Nurses Association, calls it the largest strike in New York City.
The three affected hospitals have hired temporary and travel nurses to fill in for the striking nurses.
Nurses point to staffing issues as one of the most important things at stake in the negotiations. They say hospital systems are understaffing clinical floors and units to save money, a problem that can lead to quality of care problems.
The George Washington University has experts available to comment on the strike and the issues involved. To schedule an interview with a GW expert please contact Kathy Fackelmann, kfackelmann
gwu [dot] edu (kfackelmann[at]gwu[dot]edu) or Katelyn Deckelbaum, katelyn [dot] deckelbaumgwu [dot] edu (katelyn[dot]deckelbaum[at]gwu[dot]edu).
Richard Ricciardi is a professor in the School of Nursing and the Executive Director for the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at GW. Prior to joining GW, Ricciardi served as the Director, Division of Practice Improvement and Senior Advisor for Nursing at AHRQ.
Ricciardi can speak to the workforce challenges nurses currently face, including staffing shortages. He can also address the nursing strikes over recent months in many parts of the U.S.
Patricia (Polly) Pittman is the Fitzhugh Mullan Professor of Health Workforce Equity at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health. As director of the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity, Pittman has built an extensive research enterprise focusing on policies that enable the health workforce to better address health equity, including protection of labor rights of health workers.
She can discuss the practice of hiring temp and travel nurses, short staffed clinical units and healthcare burnout.