Nurses declared a 'National Day of Action' as more than 20 rallies took place across the country on Thursday.
In Christchurch, angry health workers took to the streets demanding that Health New Zealand address what they say is a chronic shortage of nursing staff.
Enrolled nurse Debbie Handisides said they often had to work without enough staff.
“Stress and burnout and you don't go home satisfied because you have done your daily work. You don't want to go to work, you don't know how much you are missing.”
She wants a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio, to help ensure safe staffing levels.
Janine Randle has been a nurse for 50 years, but said health care workers were tired and burned out.
“The staff cannot provide basic services for patients because sometimes we do not have enough staff to do so.”
The Nurses Union claims more than a quarter of nursing services were below target staffing levels, with some units operating below safe staffing levels most of the time.
Randle said staff were often pulled from one department to work in another to cover a shortfall.
“Hospitals across the country can only survive because of nurses working extra shifts. And now there is an end to overtime because money is an issue.”
The union is calling on the coalition government to invest more money in healthcare to fund more nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants.
“We want the government to listen to us, we want them to listen. Most importantly, we want them to listen this week before the budget comes out so they can put some more money into healthcare so we don't lose our nurses abroad.” Handiside said.
Thursday's demonstrations come after half of the country's junior doctors quit their jobs, warning they were “understaffed, undervalued and underpaid”.
The protesters hope the government will listen to their plea and fund enough more nurses to address the health care system's serious recruitment and retention problems.
They say improving conditions for workers will lead to better health care and better outcomes for patients.
– By Geoff Sloan, created with support from NZ On Air