Hunter nurses and midwives have ramped up industrial action for a one-year 15 per cent pay rise, with work bans that include refusing to clean beds and bins or take calls on wards.
A lunchtime rally was also held at Calvary Mater Newcastle on Monday over safe staffing, coinciding with the beginning of work-to-rule measures at other hospitals over fair pay.
John Hunter Hospital branch secretary for the nurse union Linda Mobbs said staff were taking numerous actions such as "no domestic duties and not pushing beds".
"We're not cleaning the beds, not emptying linen skips or rubbish bins," Ms Mobbs said.
"We're encouraging staff not to do any non-nursing duties, as long as it doesn't interfere in the care of the patient."
She said staff - who are members of the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association - had also banned follow-up phone calls to patients.
"Discharged patients are usually rung within 48 hours of going home to see what their experience was like.
"And calls to some wards, asking questions and checking on relatives have been banned.
"If people are ringing to see how their relative is and they can't get through, they should call their MP and tell them no one's answering the phone because there aren't enough nurses."
Staff have also banned online training for things like hand hygiene and fire safety.
"If we can't fit it into our work time, we're supposed to do that on our own time. We're not doing that at home anymore," Ms Mobbs said.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the Hunter health district had "plans in place to ensure any industrial action has minimal impacts on patients and services".
"The current work-to-rule industrial action at John Hunter Hospital is being closely monitored and is not impacting patient care," Mr Park said.
He said nursing duties were being done as required, "including supporting at-risk patients upon discharge with follow-up phone calls".
The union's Maitland Hospital branch president Monique Murray said the work-to-rule campaign started there on Monday.
"I don't think people realise the non-nursing duties we do and the time we spend doing them, which take away time from looking after patients," Ms Murray said.
"We're already stretched on the floor as it is. The hospital system relies on nurses heavily, not just for our skills to look after patients but to keep the hospital afloat in many different areas."
She said numbers were growing at "every rally we have".
"It shows the increasing frustration. We've had enough and are willing to step up and show the government just how serious we are. We're not going to be just pushed aside any more," she said.
"We're a big female-dominated industry that has kept quiet for so long, shut up and done the job needed. They haven't given us the respect we deserve. We deserve better."
Camilla Smith, the Mater branch secretary for the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association, said "the future of nursing hangs in the balance".
"We need better pay and conditions, as well as safe staffing," Ms Smith said, adding that Mater wages would be considered after the state-run hospitals resolved their pay negotiations.
"We're trying all the tools we can to put pressure on the government, to include us on the list for safe-staffing funding.
"We're concerned because John Hunter has been announced as getting that funding. That will make it increasingly difficult to retain and recruit staff at the Mater."
