It was the same message over and over from the frustrated and exhausted nurses outside Maitland Hospital on Wednesday.

More than 50 people stood outside the High Street hospital with signs as part of a Hunter-wide rally on Wednesday in response to the NSW government's rejection of shift-by-shift ratios and its 1.04 per cent pay offer.

NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association (NSWNMA) member Renae Currie said rallies were part of a push to improve conditions for the nursing industry who are sick of being "overlooked and ignored". "We had an awesome turnout - there were so many more people who turned out," she said. "There were people who couldn't come who were showing support through text messages and phone calls. We are sick of being overlooked and ignored.

"Every day we are coming to work with a sense of doom that something bad is going to happen because we don't have the correct nursing ratio to provide safe care to our community and patients.

"The area is growing ... the presentation of patients to Maitland Hospital is growing. We just don't have the nurses to be able to provide the care that the community and patients need.

"We need the ratios. It has to be non-negotiable."

Mrs Currie added the nursing profession was suffering in NSW due to a rising resignation rate. "They can't do the job they want to do. If we had the ratios, there'd be better patient outcomes and nurses would come back to the profession like they did in Queensland and Victoria," she said. "People have lost their job satisfaction. It makes it harder to care for people and that's all we want to do."

Last month, the NSW Ministry of Health offered nurses what amounts to a 1.04 per cent pay increase, should the federal government's 0.5 per cent superannuation increase proceed on July 1.

NSWNMA General Secretary, Brett Holmes, implored the NSW government to follow Queensland's lead and act on the findings which they used to evaluate Queensland's ratio legislation based on nurse staffing and patient mortality, readmissions, and length of stay.

"This research is further proof of why we desperately need shift-by-shift ratios in NSW," Mr Holmes said.

"We know that safe staffing, through minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, not only improves patient outcomes but also saves money.

"Enough is enough. The NSW government must stop relying on nurses' goodwill to stay at the bedside. They deserve to be valued with shift-by-shift ratios and fair pay." The rally coincided with International Nurses Day.