The New South Wales (NSW) nurses union have overwhelmingly voted to strike over staffing and wage issues. Thousands of nurses and midwives from the state’s public hospitals are expected to walk off the job for 24 hours on Feb. 15, leaving skeleton staff to care for the critically ill. “Nurses and Midwives across New South Wales have been campaigning for nurse-to-patient ratios on a shift by shift basis for nearly 10 years,” NSW Nurses and Midwives Association General Secretary Brett Holmes told Nine’s Today Show on Feb. 9. “What they’ve been through in the last two years has strengthened their determination to get this NSW government to understand that to give them hope for the future,” he said. Holmes said nurses were burnt out and at breaking point and turned to industrial action as a last resort. During the Delta and Omicron outbreaks, the state government assured the public that …