The two main nursing unions say their employers have eight days to negotiate a resolution to the dispute over pay and conditions, before it escalates.
The Irish Nurses Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses Association today announced that rolling work stoppages at hospitals around the country would begin tomorrow week.
The unions said the nature, form and timing would be announced next Monday.
They say they decided not to commence the action until after the Easter weekend so that all patients currently in hospitals could receive treatment.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's News At One, Liam Doran, General Secretary of the INO, said his union had no wish for an all-out strike.
The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has insisted that the Government cannot agree to the nurses' demand for a 10.5% pay rise, because to do so would mean the end of the national pay agreement.
Mr Ahern told Opposition deputies in the Dáil that both the Labour Court and the National Implementation Body had come to the view that the issues raised by the nurses could be dealt with through benchmarking.
He also said that a reduction to a 35-hour week would represent a massive change in working arrangements involving a reduction of 7.7m nursing hours, and that cannot be undertaken lightly.
Day two of work-to-rule
More than 40,000 nurses are taking part in the second day of a work-to-rule.
The Health Service Executive said the action had caused significant delays and any continuation will cause significant disruption to services and cause hardship and distress to patients.
The HSE said, in particular, it was very concerned that the disruption of patient discharges will have an increasing impact on Accident & Emergency departments.
It is also asking members of the public not to ring hospitals unless absolutely necessary.
The HSE has confirmed that 14 scheduled operations have been cancelled at Cavan General Hospital as a result of the dispute.
INO officials have described the decision as premature, saying union members were in place to look after patients so the procedures could go ahead.
