Withdrawal of emergency cover from medical and surgical wards in future strikes is expected to be adopted as a legitimate option by the Irish Nurses' Organisation tonight.
Intensive-care units would be unaffected.
The issue will be discussed at a closed session at its annual general meeting in Killarney, Co Kerry.
While no industrial action is planned, nurses are still angry that the provision of emergency cover during their 1999 strike was, as they see it, taken for granted by management.
Nurses found themselves providing unpaid emergency cover when managements and consultants were taking weekends off, a spokeswoman said.
Nurses were determined "that will never happen again", the spokeswoman declared.
If, as expected, the proposal is adopted tonight, it will probably mean the phased withdrawal of emergency cover from medical and surgical wards some days into a dispute, but not in situations where lives would be put at risk.
Nurses believe there is still much to be done to address pay and non-pay issues which affect them, INO general secretary Mr Liam Doran said yesterday. The resolve of employers in dealing with the problems which beset the profession was seen to be weakening, Mr Doran said, and he forecast "tactical levels of industrial action" in the future as a result.