The Irish Nurses Organisation claims children's lives are being put at risk due to a shortage of paediatric staff at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
The organisation says it is only a matter of time before a child dies because there are just four specially-trained paediatric nurses in the hospital's A&E unit.
It says the number has actually fallen from six to four in recent years despite a HSE recommendation in 2005 that extra paediatric nurses needed to be recruited.