"We're actually going to go home and relax now so we can go back to work tomorrow and do it all again," said NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association Orange Base Hospital Branch Delegate Grace Langlands shortly after the rally.

Ms Langlands said the current surge in COVID cases is stretching nurses and midwifes to breaking point and also impacted numbers attending the Orange action.

Numbers were down by almost half on last month's rally.

"Unfortunately COVID has really been a hamper at work, and we saw the effects of it today.

"At work at the moment we're losing staff with COVID. Schools have been badly hit so we also have a lot of parents who've had to take time off to care for their children."

After walking around Robertson Park, nurses and midwifes gathered in the rotunda to share their experiences.

"We had people telling their stories in tears today," Ms Langlands said.

"It's the fatigue and frustration that nurses are feeling from not being heard and not being able to provide the care that patients have a right to."

"Just doing the bare minimum is not we want, we want to be able to provide the care needed."

She said the situation at Orange, and across the state, was dire.

"We short-staffed and we're over worked."

NSWNMA General Secretary, Brett Holmes, said nurses and midwives were demanding the NSW government address the growing patient safety concerns being raised by frontline health staff.

"Our members are increasingly frustrated at the government's inaction to address the serious issues they are raising shift after shift, but seemingly falling on deaf ears," said Mr Holmes.

"More than 180 branches voted in favour of statewide strike action over the past two weeks, and over 160 of those are participating in the 24-hour strike or work bans, leaving behind staff to provide life-preserving care.

"Despite their pleas for more support from the government, nurses and midwives are extremely fatigued from working double shifts and increased amounts of overtime, because of the growing gaps in staffing rosters.

"We need the NSW government to sit down with us for meaningful talks about our claim for shift by shift nurse-to-patient ratios, improved maternity staffing and a modest pay rise.

"What nurses and midwives are asking for is not unreasonable. We're simply calling on the government to prioritise patient care and commit to a safe staffing model with a guaranteed minimum number of nurses and midwives on every shift."

Ms Langlands said industrial action would continue "until we're heard, until legislation is passed, and until pen goes to paper."

She said nurses and midwifes were at "rock bottom."

"We need action now. Or we're going to have a mass exodus of nurses."

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