Nurses in the north-west have given a mixed response to the Labour Court recommendations, with many expressing anger that they were taken off the picket line before being given the opportunity to vote on the package.
Psychiatric nurses were adamant that the proposals did not go far enough towards meeting their demands, and they said they were "totally demoralised".
One psychiatric nurse, who did not want to be named, said she and others like her would not get recognition for their extra qualifications. Nurses working as family therapists and alcohol counsellors, for example, would still be paid the same as a staff nurse.
"What they have offered, we would have got anyway. There is nothing for more junior nurses or nothing to make the profession more attractive for people to come into it.
"At a meeting we had last night, everybody was just disgusted. The morale is really very low. We are back at work and it is worse than before. And we feel now that we will also have lost public support . . "
Ms Cora O'Rourke, the Irish Nurses' Organisation spokeswoman in the north-west, said "there are people extremely angry that we didn't ballot first, but equally there would be people extremely angry if we had continued the strike for three more days."
Ms O'Rourke said she believed that when the proposals were explained to people, they would take a more positive view.