Nurses all across the state are 10 days away from ditching their scrubs and heading to the picket line.

Sixteen thousand California nurses are threatening a one-day strike if they don’t get what they call proper precaution from the H1N1 virus.

This pending nurse walkout over swine flu protection would affect 34 hospitals in some of California’s biggest cities.

The main battlefront pits the California Nurses Association against Catholic Healthcare West. Locally CHW runs both Mercy Southwest and Truxtun locations plus Bakersfield Memorial. The 10 day timeline is approaching as talks have hit a stalemate.

In response to all the hold-out talk, a Mercy and Memorial hospital spokesperson issued a statement to ABC 23.

The document states that the ongoing negotiations are not about swine flu safety, rather "the union's unrealistic salary and benefits proposal.”

As for the ongoing negotiations between the Catholic Healthcare West and The California Nurse’s Association, the sides met up in Oakland and talks lasted late into Monday.

The nurses association said talks made little progress while up north and the strike looks like a very real possibility.