![Nurses and midwives previously gathered in Belmore Park, Goulburn. Picture: Dominic Unwin. Nurses and midwives previously gathered in Belmore Park, Goulburn. Picture: Dominic Unwin.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/C5T5utnEbuCCVHhsQW5GNd/2b7fb45a-91f4-45b5-88e9-24fd0e2d0563.jpg/r0_376_4032_2643_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Nurses across the Southern Tablelands and Southern Highlands will walk off the job on Thursday, September 1, over demands for safe staffing.
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Nursing staff in Goulburn will meet outside Goulburn-Mulwaree Council Chambers at 10:30 and will march to Belmore Park.
Meanwhile staff from Bowral and District hospital will rally for nurse and patient safety at Glebe Park at 12:30 pm on Thursday.
Nurses in Queanbeyan will also go on strike, with a rally to be held at 9 am at Queanbeyan Hospital.
Former nurse and Goulburn District Unions president, Anna Wurth-Crawford said she hoped the rally would make a bit of a "racket".
Ms Wurth-Crawford, a life member of the Nurses Association said when she was still working, ratios were implemented by former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally.
"It made things a lot easier because they had to employ more nurses," she said.
"When the Liberal Party came into power, it changed into a system that just doesn't work.
"But neither the government nor the opposition has committed to anything."
Despite leaving the profession eight years ago, Ms Wurth-Crawford said she was aware the situation was "a lot grimmer", with many friends still in the nursing profession.
"Nurses are exhausted, doing overtime and so forth, and they're leaving in droves," she said.
"The less staff the more work you know.
"It's dangerous not having the nurses to care for the patients. Nurses risk their registration if something goes wrong. It's just not worth the risk.
"Things have greatly deteriorated since I left."
NSWNMA General Secretary, Shaye Candish, said nurses and midwives could no longer put up with the dangerous staffing levels and unsustainable workloads.
"Our members are angry. They're fed up with being ignored. We indicated to the NSW government earlier this year that we needed an open and meaningful dialogue with them about safe staffing," she said.
"We still don't have mandated nurse-to-patient ratios in our public hospitals or health facilities, and this is putting patients at risk. The NSW government is ignoring what's desperately needed to ensure patients are getting the best possible care in their local hospitals.
"Our members are frustrated more than anything else because their concerns for patient safety have not been heard, and their professional perspectives and pleas for short and longer-term safe staffing solutions are not being acknowledged."
Ms Candish said nurses and midwives were in a constant state of worry about their patients, and about what they can't do for their patients because they "can't be everywhere at once."
"This is not sustainable. Clinical health professionals should not be in a situation which means that every shift they go to work, they have to decide which patient gets care, which patient waits, and which patient misses out.," she said.
NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary, Michael Whaites, said both metropolitan and regional nurses and midwives were seriously overworked.
"This widespread staffing crisis in our health system won't simply go away as COVID-19 case numbers slowly start to decline," he said.
"What our members are asking for is not unreasonable. They are simply asking for staffing ratios, a safer workplace and fair pay.
"We are behind in NSW and more nurses and midwives are walking away because of what they've had to put up with shift after shift.
"We are supporting our members in taking this action to demand the NSW government listen to our calls for safe staffing ratios.
During the 24-hour strike, life-preserving services will be maintained in all public hospitals and health services.
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