The problem is exacerbated by hospital layoffs since 1983 of 125,000 licensed practical nurses and nurses aides, whose jobs are now filled by registered nurses.

Dr. Davis said there was no reliable estimate of the total number of licensed practical nurses or nurses aides.

The contracts cover a wide variety of job categories, including X-ray and other technicians, housekeepers, orderlies, cooks, engineers and nurses aides.

Jim Butler, president of Local 420, which represents 900 housekeepers, porters and nurses aides, said he and his members would honor the strike.

Each character has suffered the loss of a loved one as has the nurses aide, played by Miss Foote.

Home-care aides at private agencies are not unionized and earn from $5.75 an hour to $12.50, if they are certified as nurses aides.

They receive an average of $6.29 an hour and work mostly as sales clerks or nurses aides.

The negotiations cover a wide variety of hospital workers including nurses aides, orderlies, cooks, pharmacists, custodians, social workers and technicians.

The workers covered by the accord include nurses aides, pharmacists, orderlies, and laboratory technicians, whose average annual salary is about $18,000.

They were studying to become nurses aides, carpenters and bricklayers and trying to overcome what they saw as bad decisions that were holding them back.