Roughly 5,000 nurses, hospitalists and other frontline health workers at Providence hospitals and clinics throughout Oregon are set to go on an open-ended strike starting Jan. 10. The strike could hobble Oregon’s largest health care system and significantly impact health care services across the region as patients seek care elsewhere.

About 5,000 healthcare workers at 11 hospitals and clinics run by Providence Health & Services plan to go on strike at 7 am Friday, Jan. 10 to protest what they say are low wages and dangerously understaffed critical care units and emergency rooms.

It will be the first doctors' strike in state history and the largest nurses' strike, according to the union representing the health care workers.

Thousands of health care workers at Providence hospitals and clinics in Oregon are planning to go on strike Jan. 10.

After failed negotiations, 5,000 Providence frontline healthcare workers will be striking on Jan. 10, marking the start of the largest healthcare and first physicians strike in Oregon history.

Healthcare workers represented by the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) across the state issued a 10-day intent to strike notice to Providence management Monday. The notice comes after a week of bargaining with the hospital system followed by a five-day cooling off period along with additional mediated discussions.