SAVANNAH, Ga. () — As Nurses Week kicked off on Tuesday, a nurse from the area opened up about her motivations, the obstacles she encounters, and her perspective on the ongoing nursing shortage across the country.

For over 37 years, Nurse Robbin with Memorial Health has often been the first face patients see when entering the hospital.

She said it is a rewarding job filled with its challenges. She relies on her team’s camaraderie and family to get her through the toughest days.

“The best way I can describe that for someone that doesn’t work in the emergency department here at Memorial is you could be delivering a baby and come out and deliver a coworker’s baby, which has happened,” said Robbin. “The next minute you go take care of someone that’s 98 years old.  You go from one extreme to the other.”

The nation is currently grappling with a nursing gap. Georgia is expected to have the second worst shortage over the next decade, according to the Federal Health Resources and Service Administration.

“I think that nursing itself has expanded so much and that it is difficult to fulfill all the roles that nursing itself has expanded,” Robbin said. “A lot of nurses are older, and they elected to get out of nursing.”

The COVID-19 pandemic also had a significant impact on the nursing crisis. Many nurses had to step into roles in the medical field that pushed them outside of their comfort zones, Robbin told .

“Since COVID-19, people have become extremely more angry, aggressive,” she said. “I’m not sure what happened to people. I think that behavior towards nursing has caused a lot of people to leave the bedside.”

Nurses and doctors also called this the hardest time of their lives. There were hours spent away from loved ones. Robbin recalled telling families they cannot be there for their loved ones who were ill, which has stuck with her.

“I think it was very difficult for a lot of other nurses, and they saw what happened and how the world handled COVID, and they didn’t want to be a part of that,” said Robbin. “I adapted. I know what I’ve seen versus what was on the news. I personally experienced it.”

Her love for nursing stemmed from the drive to help people. With years of experience and relationships that she has formed, she said she’s grown to love the profession even more.

She said that at this point of her career, she gets the most fulfillment from witnessing younger nurses’ progress.

“I do appreciate the days that I come in and I’m able to teach them or I recognize something that someone else didn’t,” she said. “It’s just a great job.”

It is a calling that has kept her in her scrubs. She said every day she is grateful of the decisions she has made early on.

“A lady just gave me a hug just before I walked out of there and said, ‘You know, thank you for everything,'” she said. “I took her to a room, and I didn’t do much to her, but just listen to her.”

National Nurses Week focuses on highlighting the continued hard work, even during the country’s lowest points.

“I’ve been in it so long that it used to be Nurses Day,” said Robbin. “Now they got a whole week. I think that’s great, and I think it’s an opportunity to recognize the work that nurses do.”

She encouraged aspiring nurses to take the leap of faith.

“Go see if you can shadow, go to a doctor’s office, go make those visits,” Robbin said. “What you see on social media is not always the real life but go do volunteer and get into the environment.”

As the nation continues to work toward filling the nursing gap, visit Memorial Health to view open positions.