Wearing red, waving placards and chanting, almost 1,000 nurses from as far away as Bakersfield rallied in front of the federal building Wednesday to protest what they called hospitals' lack of preparation for Ebola.

Many were in their second day of a strike against Kaiser Permanente, where nurses walked out Tuesday morning over what they said was a lack of patient care.

"We need better protection for our nurses," said Mary Goodwin, a Redwood City Kaiser nurse. "We just want to be safe. We have families, too."

The nurses carried signs that read "Not One More Patient" and "Stop Ebola Now."

The rally was part of Global Ebola Action Day, where nurses throughout the nation rallied, held vigils and pickets. Similar actions took place in Australia, Ireland and the Philippines.

Nurses from the Bay Area and beyond dance during a rally at the Oakland Federal Building on Clay Street on Nov. 12, 2014.

The California Nurses Association and National Nurses United members want full body protection and adequate training.

"From head to toe, not one inch of skin should be exposed. And we want a higher level of respirator than what the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention recommend," said Bonnie Castillo, of National Nurses United.

Kaiser and other health care providers say they are prepared to handle Ebola patients.

Kaiser has teams of physicians and nurses who have been trained to treat Ebola patients at Kaiser Oakland and Kaiser South Sacramento, said Odette Bolano, a Kaiser senior vice president. All Kaiser workers who first come in contact with patients have been trained to identify and isolate potential Ebola carriers, she said.

The health care provider's readiness meets and probably exceeds federal Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention guidelines, she said. And, Kaiser does not plan to give every nurse a hazardous materials suit, Bolano said.

The two teams are not enough, Castillo asserted.

"What happens when someone exposed to Ebola walks into Kaiser Vallejo?" she asked.

All hospitals need to be able to start treatment for someone suspected of having Ebola, Castillo said. Every health care worker that comes in contact with patients should have training and protective gear, nurses said.

The California Hospital Association and the Association of California Nurse Leaders called the rallies a politically motivated attempt to exploit public concern about Ebola.

The nurses' "use of scare tactics and unjustified work disruptions are irresponsible and ignore the genuine preparation efforts that have been conducted and are continuing," the two groups said in a news release.

"Their recommendations are not supported by clinical evidence or consistent with medical experts and recognized authorities on infectious diseases, including the federal Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention and the nation's four high-level biocontainment unit hospitals," the two groups said.

Nurses first sounded the alarm that the United State was unprepared to handle the Ebola virus months ago, Castillo said. They raised money and sent equipment to Liberia and Sierra Leon after learning nurses there were treating Ebola patients without adequate protection.

"In West Africa, they call this disease Nurse Killer, because nurses are the ones with the patients 24/7," she said.

The situation in Africa prompted the union to survey U.S. hospitals.

"We found our hospitals were not prepared. They did not have training or adequate equipment in place," Castillo said.

Since then, some progress has been made, but it still falls short, she said.

At the end of the rally, the nurses put on N95 face masks, which are what the CDC recommends for health care workers treating Ebola patients. As music played over loudspeakers, they walked by boxes and tossed the masks in as they chanted, "N95: We deserve better."

Contact Rebecca Parr or follow her at Twitter.com/rdparr1.