More than 50,000 public nurses and midwives are perplexed by a seismic pay overhaul for police and will resist calls to back down from a 24-hour strike.
The female-dominated workforce demands a one-off pay increase of 15 per cent to help address a gender pay gap in hospitals.
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A 24-hour strike and large rally are planned for Wednesday.
While the Labor government maintains the nurses' claim would be unaffordable, it raised eyebrows on Monday when tabling a major pay deal for police.
The offer would lift lower-ranked officers' wages by an average of 26 per cent over four years, making them the best paid in the nation.
Police deserved the boost but nurses had been "furious" to hear a "reasonable" offer had not also come their way, union leader Shaye Candish said.
"We've now seen the teachers, the police, paramedics, cleaners and administrative staff, special constables (get offers), the list grows," the Nurses and Midwives Association NSW general secretary said.
"The biggest public sector, female-dominated workforce is being left behind."
The union and government have been locked in a battle in the new NSW Industrial Relations Commission for months.
On the commission's recommendation, the government delivered an interim wage rise of three per cent on the condition the union agreed it would not strike while negotiations continued.
"While the government has acted in good faith in delivering on the interim pay rise, regrettably, the Association has backtracked on their commitment and called a strike," a spokesman for Health Minister Ryan Park said.
"While I urge the Association not to proceed with this strike, NSW Health has begun contingency planning to mitigate risks to patients and the community."
Those contingencies are similar to those in place during a 12-hour strike in September when hundreds of planned surgeries and chemotherapy appointments had to be cancelled.
The union has defended backtracking on its no-strike deal by accusing NSW Health of not negotiating in good faith on pay.
It says the 15 per cent rise could be covered through capturing $3 billion in lost commonwealth health funding.
The government says its offer of 10.5 per cent over three years is "fair" and comes after major boosts to workforce numbers and staff-to-patient ratios.
