Nurses are "determined" and "ready to fight" for better working conditions, higher pay and safer staffing at an eight-hour strike in Tauranga.
Strikes will take place nationwide tomorrow from 11am to 7pm, affecting all public hospitals and district health board facilities in New Zealand. It will involve nurses, midwives and hospital assistants.
This comes as the New Zealand Nurses Union "overwhelmingly" rejected a second health board offer in the multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) negotiations.
Tauranga nurse Rebekah Opie said striking was not something she took lightly but reiterated the importance of participating in the strike.
Opie, who had been in the profession for 24 years, said this would only be the second strike in her career span.
"We want to try and press home how strongly we feel about the offer that has been made that just does not meet the deep need that there is," she said.
Nurses in Tauranga were "resolute" in taking strike action, she said.
"There is a determined mindset that we are going to keep going with asking for what we believe should be there for us.
"That is an environment that is safe for us and the community that we care for."
Opie said her initial reaction to the second offer was one of disbelief and "a lot of anger".
"Disbelief that there was so little movement from the initial offer. It was a very odd move.
"We want a healthy workforce, we want to attract more people into the profession. At the moment we have a workforce that is under-resourced, stretched, really tired, really fatigued and discouraged."
The most difficult part of nursing for Opie was the dissatisfaction of not having the resources she felt she needed to do her job properly.
"The most difficult thing is going home after every shift feel like you couldn't actually provide the full level of care you wanted. There are always decisions you have to make on every shift as to what you cannot do."
Opie, who worked part-time, said the job also took a toll on those who had to work full-time.
"And I have been in a position where I have been able to work part-time. I have not had the energy to work the higher hours.
She said many nurses had to work long hours to afford living costs and support their families.
"The higher hours came at a cost to the nurses and their families, which means staff cannot get a good work-life balance."
Whakatāne nurse Cheryl Hammond, who was also "shocked" by the latest health board offer, said nurses in the area were ready to take a stand.
"They want to show we are all united and are ready to fight for better working conditions, pay, safe staffing and making sure we can care for our patients."
Hammond had been in the profession for 43 years and feared for its future.
"As a nurse, I deeply do not want to strike. It is only the second time I have done this in my working career, she said.
"We are getting tired and exhausted. I am feeling very tired after all my years of nursing, and I worry about the future of nursing.
It was getting harder to meet the needs of patients as the demand for their service increased, she said.
"Making a difference in our patients' lives is what keeps me going as a nurse, but that gets harder every day."
Hammond understood how the strike would cause disruption and difficulty for many patients.
"We know that outpatients and elective surgeries have been cancelled, and we regret that greatly because we know how it will impact on people. But this is the only way we can actually have the DHBs across the country listen to us."
New Zealand Nurses Organisation lead advocate David Wait said there was a high voter turnout from the 30,000 members who worked at district health boards.
"Members are facing serious nursing workforce issues, with pay rates that do not attract people into the profession or retain the people we have, and staffing levels which stretch them to breaking point, putting them and their patients at risk."
About 350 Bay of Plenty District Health Board patients would be affected by the strikes.
Both Tauranga Hospital and Whakatāne Hospital would only be open for emergency, essential services and urgent medical care.
The majority of non-essential services and planned surgeries had been postponed.
The district health board nurses strike incident controller Dorothy McKeown said patients who had appointments deferred would not be disadvantaged.
They would have already been offered a new date or one would be forthcoming, she said.
"Since notification of potential industrial action by the NZNO, the district health board has had a contingency planning group in place.
"The contingency planners have systematically worked across all services to ensure plans are in place leading up to, and on the day of, industrial action to ensure the safety of our patients and teams that will be working."
Patients would be prioritised by virtue of the highest clinical need, she said.
Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation chief executive officer Lindsey Webber anticipated general practices might see a slight increase in patient numbers due to the strike.
Webber said there were no major concerns around the impact of the strike at the "practice level".
"We would advise people to call ahead to their practice first," she said.