Nurses at Letterkenny University Hospital are set to be invited to meet with the Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation on possible industrial action.
The trade union is hosting a series of information and consultation meetings with members over the next month due to the hospital overcrowding crisis.
The INMO says levels of burnout are at an all-time high among nurses who have been at the coalface of the crisis.
The union said the unsafe staffing levels seen in hospitals this month was totally avoidable.
Records were broken last Tuesday when 931 patients were recorded waiting on trolleys in Irish hospitals.
Today in Letterkenny there are 37 patients recorded on trolleys awaiting admission to the Emergency Department.
“For too long nurses and midwives have been warning that we were going to see an overcrowding blackspot in January unless serious and meaningful action was taken. While many will try to laud the fact that we have seen a decrease of patients on trolleys from 931 to 535, we won’t be part of attempts to justify this as an improvement,” said INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghda.
INMO President Karen McGowan said on Friday: “We will now begin a period of consultation pertaining to industrial action. Nurses and midwives are being asked to crisis manage a situation that is of our employers’ own making. We know that levels of burnout are at an all-time high.
“We must now take whatever action is deemed necessary to ensure that we do not endure this level of danger in our workplaces in the coming months and years ahead on a continuous replay mode.
“We will now commence a series of information and consultation meetings with members over the next month.”
