NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) delegate Daniel Mackay is a third generation nurse but his daughters will not be following in his footsteps.
They have seen that the job is just too hard for the little money they'd get in return, he says.
"When I started working, it was a career where you could go to work and bring home enough money to provide for your family, you can't do that anymore," Mr Mackay said.
An ICU nurse, Mr Mackay joined the stop work action outside the John Hunter Hospital (JHH) on Monday August 26 to fight for a 15 per cent pay increase.
NSWNMA union members from 100 hospitals across the state will walk off the job this week to demand better pay and support from the government.
Mr Mackay said working as a nurse meant long shifts, often overtime, short-staffed hospitals and low pay.
He said the government would also not budge on other requests such as consecutive days off.
"It is absolutely disgusting that they're being denied this," he said.
"I think now it's just discrimination against women. It is purely that. It's because they see a workforce that is full of women, and they just believe that the women should go back to work," he said.
Living in 2024 on a 2008 wage
NSWNMA branch secretary for JHH Linda Mobbs said there were 10 previous negotiations attempts but the government had not met union demands including pay, staff to patient ratios, and sick leave.
"We've got nurses who are trying to live in 2024 and getting paid a 2008 rate," Ms Mobbs said.
"NSW Health is no longer the employer of choice that it used to be for nurses and health people, we're falling a long way behind the other states," she said.
Alongside a general 15 per cent pay increase, the union also wanted a rise in their night shift penalty rates, Ms Mobbs said.
Many nurses have exhausted their sick leave due to Covid-19 cases, RSV, and influenza, she said.
"It's been a really hard hitting year, and also the exhaustion just sort of compiles on top of that so nurses are feeling very undervalued," Ms Mobbs said.
She said every ward was worn out and tired, and many older nurses were walking away.
"People are just fed up. There is more of a feeling of desperation, they just feel like no one cares, and no one is listening," she said.
"There is just never enough of anything."
NSWNMA delegate, Chantelle Phee said staff were "stretched to the limit" and it was affecting their ability to give adequate patient care.
A clinical nurse specialist in rehabilitation, Ms Phee said she loved her area of work but it was getting harder and harder by the day.
"How are we supposed to give that quality of care when we can't even look after ourselves because we're burnt out?" she said.
Ms Phee said people were leaving to other states such as Queensland, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.
"We're losing staff by the droves and that's just making the conditions even worse because our staffing numbers are just going down and down," she said.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said negotiations were ongoing and a number of meetings had been held between NSW Health and the union "since a log of claims was served in May 2024".
"As always, we will work closely and constructively with workers and their unions," Mr Park said.
"Last year the NSW government abolished the wages cap and delivered the largest pay rise for nurses and midwives in over a decade, with the majority of NSWNMA members voting to accept this 4.5% wages offer," he said.
Mr Park said the state government had "increased retention rates back to pre-Covid levels".
