Nurses and midwives held rallies at Hunter hospitals on Tuesday for fair pay and respect for their "female-dominated professions".
Rallies were held at John Hunter, Maitland, Belmont, Morisset, Singleton and Muswellbrook hospitals.
Members of the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association rallied on their own time to demand a one-year 15 per cent pay rise, given they are the "lowest paid nurses and midwives in the country".
Linda Mobbs, the union's John Hunter Hospital branch secretary, said the public health system was "dealing with a major staffing crisis", with rising overtime and staff turnover.
"We're about to experience an even bigger recruitment and retention problem. It's not as attractive a career as it used to be," Ms Mobbs said.
"Everyone is experiencing burnout and exhaustion. It's like the peak of COVID.
"More than 20,000 nurses and midwives statewide exhausted all their annual sick leave [in 2022-23]."
She said staff were "run down and we're exposed to all the bugs", like COVID, flu, RSV and walking pneumonia.
A 15 per cent pay rise would mean "more financial security" for younger and older staff.
"Young ones could look at buying a home or not be stressed over paying rent," she said.
"And at the other end, there are those looking towards retirement. In your last few years, you want to put more into superannuation to build up for your retirement. At the moment, we can't."
She said the average age of nurses was falling, as "so many seniors have left because they're so burnt out and tired of doing overtime".
"We have this young group being left on their own and that affects patient safety. They're being hung out to dry to be in charge of things they shouldn't be."
The rallies aim to stop nurses and midwives leaving the industry or moving interstate for better pay and conditions.
Belmont Hospital branch secretary Sarah Howell said NSW nurses and midwives were "the worst paid in the country now that Victorian nurses got their pay rises".
"We're being paid the 2008 wage in 2024," Miss Howell said.
First-year nurses in NSW earn a base rate of $70,050 and those on the highest automatic grade earn $98,351, a union report released last month said.
She said nurses in the Hunter and statewide "don't feel very valued".
"It's very disheartening and hurtful. There's a lot of anger in our profession. We're not feeling heard.
"We came into this profession wanting to give back to our communities.
"Our government doesn't value us like other frontline workers like firefighters and police."
She said the rallies were also for better staff-to-patient ratios - one nurse to three patients in emergency and one to four in hospital wards - to improve "patient safety and care".
The workers want the state's "largest female-dominated professions" to be respected and valued.
A NSW government spokesperson said "as always, we will work closely and constructively with workers and their unions".
There had been "eight negotiation meetings" between NSW Health and the nurse union "since a log of claims was served in May".
"The negotiations are still in their early stages," the spokesperson said.
