This is truly disturbing. Nurses are on the front line and the union is pissed by the lack of safety and protocols for these nurses.

Protective gear initially left nurses’ necks exposed at Texas hospital treating Ebola patient, union official says. http://t.co/W2o8PfvVUN

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) October 15, 2014

…At first, protective gear nurses were wearing while treating Duncan left their necks exposed.

After expressing concerns that their necks were exposed even as they wore protective gear, the nurses were told to wrap their necks with medical tape, the union says.

“They were told to use medical tape and had to use four to five pieces of medical tape wound around their neck. The nurses have expressed a lot of concern about how difficult it is to remove the tape from their neck,” Burger said.

At one point during Duncan’s care, hazardous waste piled up.

“There was no one to pick up hazardous waste as it piled to the ceiling,” Burger said. “They did not have access to proper supplies.”

Nurses got no “hands-on” training about using protective gear.

“There was no mandate for nurses to attend training,” Burger said, though they did receive an e-mail about a hospital seminar on Ebola.

“This was treated like hundreds of other seminars that were routinely offered to staff,” she said.