They work long hours on their feet and risk their lives at work each day in return for a modest salary. And now America's nurses are at the front lines as the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history threatens to spread across the United States.

With more than four times as many registered nurses as physicians in the United States, nurses make up the bulk of hospital staff and serve as the primary providers for direct patient care, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.Terry Jones, assistant professor of nursing at the University of Texas at Austin, said treating infectious diseases like Ebola is merely part of the job.

On the other side of the disease is a real human being that is who we are there for. The virus is part of the package, Jones said. You have to accept that as part of the package and make your peace with it. Risk cannot be eliminated.

At least two health care workers who cared for an Ebola patient in Texas have contracted the deadly virus in recent days. Amber Joy Vinson, 26, and Nina Pham, 26, bothcontracted Ebola while treating Thomas Eric Duncan at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas before he died last week.

Vinson reported a fever on Tuesday and was isolated within 90 minutes of her temperature being taken, health officials said. Phamwas upgraded to good condition Tuesday, after being in isolation since Friday. She is the first person to contract Ebola in the U.S., and the case has triggered a CDC investigation to identify the cause of the infection.

The deadly virus is transmitted via contact with infected bodily fluids, according to Jones. That really is our job, and those bodily functions are part of the nursing care that we provide, said Jones, who has been a nurse for over 25 years.

CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden has said hes unsure how Pham was infected. What we need to do, is all take responsibility for improving the safety of those on the front lines. I feel awful that a health care worker became infected in the care of an Ebola patient. She was there trying to help the first patient survive, Frieden said during apress conference Monday.

Nursing is the nations largest health care profession and represents one of the largest sectors of the American workforce,according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Theyspend, on average, 72 percent of their time performing patient care and keeping patient care records, according to findings from the2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses.

On average, full-time registered nurses work over 40 hours per week, often working 12-hour shifts at a time and usually standing on their feet, Jones said. Nurses paid on an hourly wage basis are typically paid for overtime work, while salaried nurses do not receive overtime pay. The majority of registered nurses do not report working overtime, the national survey showed.

Nearly 85 percent of nurses working in hospitals are under the age of 30, and over 88 percent of staff nurses have five or fewer years of post-graduate experience, according to the survey published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.According to Jones, a nurses age isnt necessarily relevant to his or her level of experience. Many recent graduates are arguably most readily equipped and trained, she said.

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Ebola Outbreak 2014: Nurses, Health Care Workers Most At Risk