Following a Congressional hearing Friday morning in Washington on Ebola and the latest confirmed Ebola patient in New York Thursday, National Nurses United said a major gap remains in U.S. preparedness – the failure of the federal government, both Congress and the White House, to mandate all hospitals to implement the highest standards and protocols to protect nurses, other health workers and the public.

Registered nurses at University of California medical centers will hold speak outs Tuesday and Wednesday to alert the public that UC hospitals, now being promoted as priority hospitals for treating any potential Ebola patients in California, are far from prepared, according to the frontline RNs.

Following a day in which leaders of the nation’s largest nurses organization met with California Gov. Jerry Brown to urge his state to set a national model for optimal safety protocols for responding to the Ebola virus, National Nurses United announced it has been invited to testify before Congress Friday on the Ebola threat.

National Nurses United today welcomed the call in the latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for “rigorous and repeated training” for nurses and other health workers responding to the Ebola virus as NNU has been urging for two months, but said some substantial questions and concerns remain.

Will California, the world’s 8th largest economy, set a national standard for the U.S. and beyond on the highest safety standards and protocols for confronting the deadly Ebola virus? That’s the proposal leaders of the National Nurses United and California Nurses Association will make to California Gov. Jerry Brown Tuesday morning.

California Gov. Jerry Brown will meet with leaders of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United Tuesday morning in Sacramento to review ways to make California the national leader in enacting the highest Ebola safety standards and protocols to protect nurses, other frontline health care workers, patients and the public.

Registered nurses in various cities across the country will kick off a national week of action today demanding that President Obama and the U.S. Congress take immediate steps to guarantee that all hospitals and healthcare employers institute the highest Ebola protocols in their facilities to protect RNs, other healthcare workers, patients and the public.

Today, Registered Nurses at St Joseph Hospital in Orange, a hospital where RNs are not yet represented by a union, took the bold step of publicly calling on management to take immediate measures to ensure the health and safety of RNs and patients alike regarding Ebola. The RNs pointed out that the hospital, like most hospitals in America, has failed to enact adequate measures to protect against Ebola.