Maine nurses want President Obama and the U.S. Congress to force hospitals and health care employers to implement uniform safety standards for treating Ebola patients. Last night, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control issued its own updated rules to protect health care workers from contracting the virus.
The new guidelines encourage those treating Ebola patients to wear two pairs of protective gloves, fluid-resistant gowns, pants and shoe coverings, a waterproof apron and a disposable, full face shield.
Nurses across the nation have complained about being unprepared to handle patients safely, after two nurses in Dallas contracted the virus after treating a Liberian man who died of the disease.
Cokie Giles, president of the Maine State Nurses Association, says her group is reviewing the new CDC guidelines.
"The strongest guidelines in the world will mean nothing, if they are not immediately implemented and enforced," Giles says. "That is why we are calling on everyone here to please sign our petition to President Obama and the Congress, calling on them to mandate the highest protocols and make sure there is a strong enforcement mechanism."
Three thousand nurses acorss the nation took part in a recent online survery on Ebola preparedness by the group National Nurses United. Eighty-four percent of those surveyed said their hospitals had not provided adaquate training on caring for Ebola patients safely, and in many cases, didn't have the proper protective gear and supplies on site.