Nurses without access to PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) in the United States of America are being suspended by hospitals for refusing to treat coronavirus (COVID-19) patients.

Mike Gulick, a nurse, was doing his best not to catch the coronavirus, considering the fact that he goes home to his wife and their 2-year-old daughter.

As part of his precautionary measure to keep the virus away from his family, he would stop at a hotel after work and take a shower. At the hotel, he also washes his clothes in a disinfectant.

But the Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, wanted the nurses to work with patients without any protective gear.

N95 masks, a type of filter masks, filter out 95 percent of all airborne particles, which includes the particles that are too tiny to be blocked by regular masks.

The administrators at the Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, said the masks were not necessary for treating coronavirus patients.

The wife of Gulick is also a nurse, but she wears an N95 mask and is covered with a second air-purifying respirator while she cared for COVID-19 patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center across town in Los Angeles.

Last week, a nurse working with Gulick tested positive for the coronavirus.

A day after the confirmation, Gulick came to work and saw doctors and nurses working without any protective gear.

After getting enough, Gulick and other nurses told their managers that they will not treat coronavirus patients without any protective gear.

As a result, the hospital suspended them.

The National Nurses Union, which represents them, ten nurses are now being paid but are not allowed to return to work due to a pending an investigation from human resources.