Members of the INMO have voted in favour of strike action by 95% over staff recruitment and retention.
The executive will meet next month to decide when to go on strike.
This would be only the second time in the INMO’s hundred-year history that its members have taken national strike action.
Nurses and midwives last engaged in strike action two decades ago in 1999.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Ireland’s nurses and midwives are speaking with one clear voice.
"This vote reflects a deep frustration in our professions, which the government cannot continue to ignore.
Nurses and midwives simply want to do their jobs and care for patients properly. But low pay has led to staff shortages, compromising safe care.
“Ireland’s current haphazard approach to nurse staffing is costly and bad for patient care, as confirmed by the Minister for Health’s own nursing taskforce.”
