While she chose to put herself in this situation, many nurses don't get to choose. They are more often in a support role and don't get to elect whom they care for, even if that comes into conflict with their values. "Nurses aren't often in the position where they can opt out of providing care for patients," Rushton says. "Physicians, on the other hand, often have a contractual relationship with patients. They can make decisions on whether they're going to provide services to them, whereas, for nurses, that option is quite limited in general. You generally get assigned based on what patients need, not what you want, not what you prefer. And what that really highlights is that we take care of everybody, regardless of their diagnosis, their gender, their culture, their socioeconomic status, their race. We take care of everybody.