They've been applauded in the streets and spat on in the shops, but one thing's for sure - it's been a long time since the world paid as much attention to nurses as it has during COVID-19.
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Today is International Nurses Day, shining the spotlight even more clearly on these undercover heroes wielding blood pressure cuffs and upside down watches.
Laura Edmonds, 31, has worked at Goulburn Hospital since 2014.
At the moment she is stationed in the COVID-19 testing clinic, where she warns patients with the disturbing words: "It's quick, but it's uncomfortable."
"I really want to apologise to all the people whose noses I've stuck something up in the last few weeks," she said with a laugh.
Her sense of humour, which she describes as sometimes "inappropriate" - like most medical professionals - is one of the characteristics she considers crucial.
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"You have to think it's funny, otherwise what are you going to do for the next 40 years?" she said.
She acknowledges that nurses are much more on the public radar during the coronavirus pandemic, although the attention is not always positive.
"I was worried at the beginning when I saw what was happening in other parts of the world," she said.
"I wouldn't go to the shops in my uniform in case people thought I was carrying the virus. It was my own paranoia, though. No one ever did anything."
But she said her biggest fear was that she would have to isolate during the pandemic and have no interaction with her husband and three young children.
"I thought I'd have to isolate from my family for months, just so I could do my job," said Laura.
I thought I'd have to isolate from my family for months, just so I could do my job.
- Laura Edmonds
"I thought that would be my reality after seeing people overseas, and in the beginning it was all happening so quickly.
"I'm so grateful most people did what they needed to do, and that in turn makes me feel safer."
A general desire to be helpful to others led Laura into her nursing career, studying first at the University of Canberra then moving to Narromine for three years with her partner.
"It's very different working out there," she said.
"You have to take whatever comes in the door, and you don't always have support - you put so much trust in the people around you."
In fact, said Laura, that's the best thing about nursing - the really strong relationships.
"We have to be able to trust each other in our job, so nursing is like family," she said.
The other reward is seeing people you have helped leave the hospital feeling better.
She has a favourite phrase she likes to send them off with: "I hope I don't see you again!"
And she means it in the nicest possible way.
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