CLEVELAND — National Nurses Week is May 6-12, and celebrates the work and contributions nurses make in the health care field. 

Eryn Menosky, 23, a registered nurse at the Cleveland Clinic, said she’s always wanted to be an advocate for her patients and feels she empathizes with them and what they’re going through.

“Especially when loved ones can’t be there,” she said. “I wanted to be that person for them.”

Despite everything nurses had to endure during the COVID-19 pandemic, Menosky still wanted to be a nurse.

She said she never questioned her career path. Seeing what nurses were doing on the front lines of the pandemic only grew her passion.

“The word ‘nurse’ became, it evolved as a different word,” Menosky said. “Communities started calling them heroes, so I wanted to be a hero in my community’s eyes and do everything that I can to help them and be there for them.”

Menosky said she recognizes the hardships and stigmas that nurses have to overcome.

“There’s a stigma with nurses. I used to hear people say ‘oh, it’s just the nurse’ or ‘nurses are the doctor’s secretary,’ and I don’t think that’s true at all,” she said. “I think that we all are a part of a team.”