The 1984 Twisted Sister hit was the anthem for nurses and midwives in Bathurst on Tuesday as they walked off the job in protest of staffing shortages.

They joined with thousands of their colleagues around the state who took strike action, calling for better nurse-to-patient ratios.

READ MORE: Striking NSW nurses rally at parliament

They also want a 2.5 per cent pay rise for recognition of their workloads during the pandemic and to compensate for their wage freeze in 2020, and called for the withdrawal of the amendment to the Workers Compensation Act that would force workers to prove they contracted COVID-19 at work.

Members of the Bathurst branch of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) went on strike for four hours on Tuesday, from 7am to 11am, and held a rally in Machattie Park.

They were joined by nurses and midwives from other areas, including Lithgow and Tullamore, and other emergency workers and community members attended to show their support.

At 10am, they marched from Machattie Park to deputy premier Paul Toole's office in Howick Street to further spread their message.

As Parliament is sitting this week, Mr Toole was not there to hear their angry, desperate calls for change.

Tracey Coyte, the organiser for the NSWNMA for the Western and Far Western local health districts, said nurses would not walk off the job if it wasn't critical.

"This is a culmination of years of our nurses and midwives saying their staffing is not safe," she said.

"This is years of them saying that they have not been able to provide safe patient care.

"Then COVID came along, which didn't cause this crisis; it compounded all of the problems that our nurses and midwives have been facing."

READ ALSO: Here's what happens when nurses run out of patience

Ms Coyte said that nurses and midwives were "burnt out, exhausted, frustrated and angry", and need premier Dominic Perrottet to ease the immense pressure on them.

"An elastic band can only stretch so far and the elastic band has now broken for our nurses and midwives," she said.

"They feel ignored, they feel disrespected, they're asking for Mr Perrottet to immediately implement mandated shift-by-shift ratios, to give them a decent pay rise above 2.5 per cent and to not go ahead with the proposed change to the Workers Compensation Act, which would mean that nurses and midwives would have to prove that they caught COVID in their workplace."

The fact that the rally went ahead on Tuesday showed how strongly nurses and midwives felt about the situation they are in.

Late Monday, the NSW Industrial Relations Commission issued dispute orders and directions against the NSWNMA to stop the strike.

The union, and health staff, refused to comply.

"The association stands in strong support of our members for defying these orders and continuing with their strike action," Ms Coyte said.

She was very pleased to see so many nurses from around the region attend the rally and was happy to have the support of other community members, particularly other emergency service workers.

"We value the support that our paramedics and our police continually offer us in health, in an emergency situation," she said.

"Nurses, midwives, police and paramedics work extremely closely together.

"We all have the same goal, and that is to keep our community as safe as possible and to provide the best possible care we can, and that is becoming impossible with the critical staff shortage in public health across NSW."

While some community members came down to hold signs and join in the march, there were also passersby who simply honked the horn loudly to show their support and people who wrote messages of support online.

It is hoped Tuesday's action sent a strong message to the government that will result in change.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: