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Some nurses have been given the option of taking annual leave as public hospitals around the country postpone elective surgery and outpatient clinics in the lead-up to the junior doctors' strike.

About 3000 members of the New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) are to strike for 48 hours from 7am on Tues Oct 18 in support of their collective employment contract negotiations with the 20 district health boards.

Lesley Harry, industrial advisor for the New Zealand Nurses' Organisation, said NZNO supports junior doctor colleagues right to strike for safe rosters.

Memo Musa, NZNO chief executive has also told members that safety of patients was foremost and that nurses and midwives appreciated that any strike action was disruptive to patients.

Harry said the organisation did not anticipate any problems for their members during the strike and it would be "business as usual" in delivering the nursing care that their patients required.

"We have given members advice around the need to stay within their scope (of practice) and not pick up the duties of doctors for that very reason," said Harry.

Hospitals around the country have also re-scheduled elective surgery and outpatient clinic appointments in the lead-up to the strike so they can focus on essential and acute services.

Harry said NZNO had heard this had lead to some DHBs offering affected nurses the option of taking leave.  She said it had advised members it was entirely up to the individual nurse whether they took up or declined the leave option because there were clear time guidelines, and only certain circumstances, under which an employer could require staff to take leave.

Shesaid it had also advised affected members that another option could be being "reasonably redeployed" to another clinical area where they were comfortable to work and was within their scope.

The resident or junior doctors' strike notice was issued to the 20 district health boards on October 3 after talks over the RDA's contract claim for safer rosters and safe hours failed.

Resident Doctors (RMOs or Resident Medical Officers) are registered medical practitioners, and range in experience from first year qualified doctors to experienced doctors training to be surgeons and specialist physicians.  Members of the RDA last took strike action in 2008.

The current NZNO DHB multi-employer collective agreement expires at the end of July next year and Harry says NZNO is likely to survey its members in March in the lead up to bargaining talks getting underway.

Meanwhile a major online survey looking at nursing fatigue in public hospitals, Safer Nursing 24/7, is concerned that data could be affected if nurses fill in the survey while their work patterns are affected by the RDA strike.  It has asked nurses to wait and complete the survey once their work patterns have returned to normal.