The year 2022 saw a rise in the number of healthcare professionals (HCPs) on strike. Becker’s Hospital Review noted 18 HCP strikes in 2022. Common motivators for HCP strikes include appropriate compensation, safe staffing ratios, better working conditions, and recognition of medical workers’ professional accomplishments. According to the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), HCPs are dissatisfied with low staff-to-patient ratios. In an effort to safeguard permanent, enforceable staffing ratios, nurses from New York City’s Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospitals embarked on a 3-day strike in January 2023, which resulted in what the NYSNA called a “historic win” for nurses.

Michelle Collins, PhD, CNM, RNC-EFM, FACNM, FAAN, FNAP, the dean of the College of Nursing and Health at New Orleans’ Loyola University, notes that improved patient care via safer staffing measures plays an integral role in the frequency of HCP strikes. Medical professionals are incredibly frustrated by hospitals thrusting upon them unsafe patient volumes that impede upon their ability to provide quality care. What’s more, unsafe staffing ratios are forcing many nurses to care for patients in clinical areas for which they are not adequately trained. Becker’s Hospital Review found that over 26% of nurses lacked the necessary training to effectively function in their reassigned clinical areas.

Three Los Angeles County public hospitals were at the source of a 3-day strike in June 2022, where interns and resident physicians engaged in many hours of “intensive bargaining” to secure demands including average salary increases and increased housing stipends. In May 2023, resident physicians at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York, went on strike for 3 days until a tentative deal for wage increases was agreed upon. According to a Politico article, pandemic-induced needs for safer work conditions and fairer wages have resulted in an increase of unionization among hospital HCPs across the country. In May 2023, University of Pennsylvania Medicine’s resident physicians and fellows overwhelmingly voted to unionize.

According to Dr. Collins, future strikes could be avoided if the crucial demands of HCPs. Healthcare systems run the risk of failing if such intuitively necessary and imperative demands are not fulfilled. A National Public Radio (NPR) report noted that physicians and nurses will continue striking if that is what it takes to better serve their patients.