Nurses who feel they are overworked will refuse to treat patients as part of a campaign that will begin in a fortnight, says the nurses' union.
Nurses Organisation president Marion Guy says the campaign aims to put responsibility for over-crowding and nursing shortages back on hospital managers and supervisors.
Ms Guy says nursing supervisors do not know what pressures individual nurses are under.
She says nurses know what they can cope with and managers need to recognise and respect that.
Nurses also say training numbers need to be doubled, and district health boards funded to employ more nurses.
Three hundred nurses, student nurses, midwives, caregivers and others are attending a two-day conference in Wellington.
Ms Guy says boosting nursing numbers and making it a safer place for nurses to work are critical issues. The only solution is to put more money into the workforce.
She says New Zealand is training about 1400 nurses, but about 400 of them leave after graduating for jobs overseas because district health boards lack sufficient funds to employ them.
Ms Guy says every hospital in the country has nurse shortages and the solution comes back to funding.
She says the number of nurses being trained should be increased to about 2,500 and enrolled nurses should be reinstated as a recognised and valued back-up for nurses.
