Striking doctors have returned to work this morning hoping their action will be the last they'll have to take.

The 73-hour strike began on Tuesday morning at 18 district health boards and finished at 8am today - the second time in six months the doctors have gone on strike, with the Resident Doctors Asscociation arguing the rosters and hours its members are being asked to work are unsafe.

"We're really quite tired of striking now," Canterbury DHB medical registrar DR Tamara Brodie says. "We've been fighting this for a long time, and we've been rally trying to make these changes, not just over this striking period but for over a year now."

Brodie said that strikers had been productive during the strike, "studying and really just recuperating and having some well needed rest."

"All of my colleagues work really hard and so this would have been a really well-deserved rest."

DHB chief executives now have to meet and to make a decision on whether a new collective contract will accommodate the union's demands.