The crisis facing Ireland's A&E departments is set to top the list of grievances aired at the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) annual conference, which gets under way in Killarney today.
The INO last week called on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to declare a national emergency because of the state of the health service.
Motions to be debated at the conference include the failure of the Government to implement its own health strategies, the negative impact on health services of poor staffing levels and the increasing level of violent attacks on hospital staff.
Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney will address the conference on Friday. She is expected to face stern criticisms during a question and answer session with delegates after her speech.
The INO will debate an emergency motion on the Health Service Executive's plans to place additional beds in existing wards as a means of alleviating A&E overcrowding. The INO is strongly opposed to such a move.
In a special session the executive will put forward the next phase of the campaign on the A&E crisis for the delegates to adopt or change. The INO has been running a campaign of lunchtime stoppages at various A&E departments for the past month.
In addition, the INO will be launching guidelines to protect nurses and midwives who expose standards in healthcare facilities to ensure there isn't a negative outcome for the "whistleblowers".
Nurses will also seek a mandate to pursue the introduction of legislation guaranteeing minimum nurse to patient ratios in all areas of the health service.
The organisation will also be debating a zero tolerance policy towards hospital superbug MRSA and impromptu inspections of all private health care facilities. There will be an open-floor discussion at this week's conference on the role of the healthcare assistant, which will include presentations by a UK academic, Dr Karen Spilsbury of the University of York, and members of the Irish nursing profession.
Health Service Executive acting chief executive Kevin Kelly will make a presentation on implications of the reform process and the establishment of the Health Service Executive for nurses and midwives.