Public hospital nurses from about 150 hospitals across NSW walked off the job today, demanding better pay and conditions.
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Hundreds gathered to bring their grievances to the steps of NSW Parliament in Sydney while the state's politicians met for the year's first sitting.
In Wollongong, the message was simple: don't think this protest is the end of it.
"I'm not sure if today's rally will change their minds but this is only the beginning, we are hoping for more from here on out," NSWNMA Wollongong Hospital branch secretary Genevieve Stone said.
Further north in Taree on the NSW Mid-North Coast, the frustration was evident.
"At Manning Base we don't have enough nurses. The workload is too big. It's not safe for patients, they're getting substandard care because nurses just do not have time to deliver what they're supposed to do. They can't keep going," NSWNMA Manning Hospital Branch secretary Scott Grant said.
Shoalhaven Hospital nurse Tod Adams, who works six days a week said staff are being "stretched beyond their limit".
We receive eight to 10 texts per day offering multiple shifts and overtime
- Shoalhaven nurse Tod Adams
"It's common that people will work 16 hour days and six to seven day weeks. People are getting burnt out and patient safety is at risk when the nursing staff are that fatigued."
At Orange in the NSW Central West, the heartbreak was real.
"At the hospital currently, we're burning out," Orange Health Service delegate for NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, Grace Langlands said,
"We've got health workers crying in corridors and in their cars before walking into work, because they don't know what they're walking into and they can't manage - and that's just not good enough anymore."
Westmead Hospital theatre nurse Timothy Blofield told the gathered crowd on Macquarie Street of times when hospital staff have had to move patients out of ICU and into general wards due to staff shortages and lack of beds.
"It's absolute chaos [in the hospital]," said Mr Blofield, who is the secretary of the Westmead's branch of the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association.
"Time-critical and urgent procedures have had to be postponed because there were no ICU beds."
As Mr Blofield spoke in Sydney on Tuesday, the crowd punctuated with chants of 'shame Hazzard shame'.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard met with the union on Monday and said he was disappointed by the strike is proceeding.
"It's unfortunate ... there's been all sorts of efforts to try and work our way through their principal issues," he told Sydney radio 2GB on Tuesday.
